The Project is a about rural tourism development and economic diversification in Nigeria, with a case study of Owu falls in Kwara state. It uses the primary method of data collected by using focus interview and questionnaires as well as direct observation of activities at Owa Kajola which is the village that houses the water fall. The t-test was used in analysing the data gathered.
Overview
Tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. In both developed and developing countries, tourism is frequently supposed to be a viable means of raising the economic activity of regions. Additionally, the development of a tourism industry has been noted to promote the destination's image, enabling the region to achieve other objectives, such as business recruitment and retention. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism generates 12% of the global gross national product and it employs around 200 million people worldwide. Tourist arrivals are estimated to reach 1 billion by 2010 and 1.6 billion by 2020 worldwide. Declining economic activity, restructuring of the agricultural sector, dwindling rural industrialisation and out-migration of higher educated youth, has led to the adoption, in many western nations, of tourism as an alternative development strategy for the economic and social regeneration of rural areas (Pompl & Lavery,1993; Williams & Shaw, 1991; Hannigan, 1994a; Dernoi,1991; Wickens, 1999).Top tourism destinations, particularly in developing countries, include national parks, wilderness areas, mountains, lakes, and cultural sites, most of which are generally rural. Thus tourism is already an important feature of the rural economy in these specific sites. It is self-evident that tourism will never come to dominate all rural areas, particularly in the developing world are vast swathes of rural areas for which tourism is not relevant for the foreseeable future. Between these two extremes are poor rural areas with some tourism potential, and an urgent need to develop whatever economic potential they have.