Tourism Marketing in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria: Advertising and Public Relations in Perspective (Published)
Tourism is a very complex industry because of its multi-faceted activities which together produce the ‘tourist product’, and also because of the various subsectors that are in themselves industries, if considered independently. Its complexity lies in the tourism promotion in its various forms directed at large number of people in various lands of different socio-economic structures, having different needs, expectations and behavior patterns. Tourism competition is constantly growing as more and more destinations seek to attract tourists and more companies and organizations become involved in highly skilled business of destination planning, transportation, accommodation and catering for the tourists. Apart from the enormous oil and gas in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, it is endowed with a lot of festivals and cultural events that are tourist attractions, which qualifies it as a tourism destination; and exploring them would add to the socio-economic development of the area. One of such is the Amakama wonder tree and Ibeno beach, a subset of the Niger Delta. The numerous tourism potentials it exhibits indicate that it is a money spinner if adequately explored. This paper, anchored on Public Relations model and source credibility theory, relied on library and archival sources as methods to identify and highlight the tourism components in the Akamaka wonder tree and Ibeno beach as well as suggested steps that could be taken to boost the potentials inherent as a tourism product. The study concluded that despite the human activities and disruption of nature, strict measures should be taken to protect this tourist destination for development because both local and foreign investors would be attracted to the area to invest their money. We, therefore, recommended that adequate security measures should be put in place and enhanced for potential tourists, and more money should be allocated to the culture and tourism sector in the annual budgets of the states in the region, among others.
Keywords: Niger-Delta, Tourism, Tourism Marketing., advertising and public relations
Influence of Tourism Marketing on Destination Competitiveness and Economic Development: Exploring Nigeria and Other African Countries (Published)
This study descriptively examined the effectiveness of tourism marketing on destination competitiveness and economic development of Nigeria and other African countries. The main objective of the study is to examine and compare the ratings on effectiveness of marketing for Nigeria and that of other African countries. A secondary data was collected on country’ marketing effectiveness, international tourist arrivals, contribution of tourism to GDP, employment and tourism exports receipts for Africa countries. Finding of this study shows that some countries in Africa are taking the issue of tourism marketing serious, as a result, have been able to attract significant number of international tourist arrivals, which has contributed immensely to their inbound receipts and GDP. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s performance shows lack of sustained commitment to tourism marketing and has adversely affected the number of international tourists’ arrivals, and its effect on inbound receipts and GDP.
Citation: Okocha, Rejoice Ebere, Agina, Emeka Kenechi, Ojiula, Uchemefuna Benjamin (2021) Influence of Tourism Marketing on Destination Competitiveness and Economic Development: Exploring Nigeria and Other African Countries, European Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, Vol.9, No.4, pp.,19-28
Keywords: Africa, Economic Development, Tourism Marketing., destination competitiveness
E-Accessibility Policy for Social Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Tourism Marketing (Published)
Nowadays, there is a growing interest for social inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in tourist industry. Tourism is vital part of modern lifestyle and is considered beneficial for individuals with disabilities enhancing personal development and promoting quality of life.This project aims to investigate policies implemented and kind of services offered in tourist industry concerning persons with disabilities who have barriers for leisure time, not only physical but also internal, cultural and social. Research is being carried out on hotel units of four and five stars in Greece. Given the fact that tourism is considered as an important sector in the economy which improves the standard of living in a country, its adaptation to web tourism with innovations in technology and development of social policies appropriate for persons with disabilities, that can facilitate travelling, can promote tourist movement and also can offer a travel motive for them.
Keywords: E-Accessibility, Social Inclusion, Tourism Marketing., disability, web tourism policy