PROMOTING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL
TOURISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY IN CROSS RIVER STATE
Bessong, Columbus Deku Ph.D1
Bessong, Napoleon Osang Ph.D2
Usua, Oku Bassey Ph.D3
&
Ntui, Obasi Ewu4
Email:
1,2,4Department of Continuing Education and Development Studies,
University of Calabar, Calabar
3Development of Curriculum and Teaching,
University of Calabar, Calabar
Abstract
The study investigated Promoting Community Development Through Environmental Tourism in the 21st Century in Cross River State. One research question and one hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for this study consisted of 5458 respondents (3928 tourism staff and 1530 community leaders) in the three senatorial zones in Cross River State. A sample of 357 respondents was used for this study. The instrument used for this study was a structured questionnaire titled: “Promoting Community Development Environmental Tourism Questionnaire (PCDETQ)” designed by the researchers. The instrument was dully validated
by three experts and a reliability coefficient of 0.68 was deduced using Cronbach Alpha statistic. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study revealed among others that environmental tourism significantly promotes the protection, conservation and restoration of biological
diversity and sustainable use of natural resources, fosters enhanced attractiveness, and beautifies environmental sites. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that government should promote sustainable environmental tourism in order to ensure that the local communities benefit from the its resources within their domain.
Keywords: Community Development, Tourism, Environment. DOWNLOAD FULL PDF