Government’s objectives for the establishment of Ikogosi Warm Spring as a tourist attraction was investigated vis-à-vis its current status, operation and contribution to adjourning community in an evaluative study. Various methods of sampling technique were employed to select sample for this study. First, purposive sampling method was used to select 100 residents of the Ikogosi community who are 18 years and above. Secondly, accidental and availability sampling methods was also used to select 100 tourists among the tourist that patronize Ikogosi Warm Spring. Thirdly, random sampling method was then employed to select 25 respondents each from the staff of Ekiti Sate Tourism Board, Ekiti State Board of Internal Revenue, Ekiti State Ministry of Finance and Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort Limited. This same method was used to select 100 respondents from other tourism stake holders (comprising of Hoteliers, Tour Operators, Travel Agents, Restaurants and Car Hire Services Operators etc) within Ekiti State. In all a total of 400 respondents were selected. The findings of this study shows that the operation of Ikogosi Warm Spring is still in line with the goals and objectives with which it was established as a tourist attraction. This is evident in the findings of this study as indicated that the attraction contributes to promotion of recreation and tourism and improvement of standard of living in the community and consequently in the state at large, providing jobs for the people and income for the government. Even though, it is evident that there are challenges facing the local people of Ikogosi-Ekiti where the attraction is located, it should also be noted that most of the population still believe that the gains of these attractions far outweighs the losses. The study concludes that the emergence of Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort Limited provided enormous social and economic benefits to the immediate local community in terms of employment, infrastructure, and income generation hence, both public and private investors should invest more capital in Tourism
Keywords: Evaluation, Geotourist Site, Ikogosi Warm Spring
