Sustainable Tourism Development as Determinant of Economic Transformation in Rural Communities of South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined sustainable tourism development as determinant of economic transformation in rural communities of South eastern Nigeria, using Imo state as a case study. 300 respondents were purposively selected for the study. A validated 10-item self-developed questionnaire tagged “STDETRCS” (Sustainable Tourism Development and Economic Transformation in Rural Communities Scale) with reliability of 0.91 was used for data collection. Two research questions were formulated and data were analyzed using weighted mean rating. Results showed that the most outstanding way by which sustainable tourism development can improve the livelihood of the people in rural communities is seeing tourism as one of the most important industries that support the rural economy in terms of poverty alleviation, job creation and income generation as the weighted mean scores (3.0, 3.0 and 3.1) are greater than criterion and grand means (2.5 and 2.9) respectively. Therefore, the study recommends that there should be improvement in the quality and efficiency of the basic tourism-related infrastructures and services such as hotels, roads, shopping malls, public amenities, transportation systems and communication to provide world class services to visitors and tourists.