Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 1000121 J Tourism Hospit ISSN: 2167-0269 JTH, an open access journal Research Article Open Access Busayo et al., J Tourism Hospit 2014, 3:1 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2167-0269.1000121 Research Article Open Access Tourism & Hospitality Impacts of Tourism on the Economy of Ekiti State Bello Mercy Busayo 1 , Bello Yekinni Ojo 2 *, Akande Emmanuel Adedapo 3 , Raja Nerina Raja Yusof 4 1 Department of Hospitality Management,School of Applied Sciences, Federal Polytechnic, Auchi. Nigeria 2 School of Graduate Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia / Federal Polytechnic, Auchi. Nigeria 3 Department of Hospitality Management and Tourism, College of Agriculture, Food Science and Technology, Wesely University of Science and Technology, Ondo. Nigeria 4 Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Malaysia *Corresponding author: Bello Yekinni Ojo,School of Graduate Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia / Federal Polytechnic, Auchi. Nigeria,Tel: 057200159; E-mail: bello.yekini@gmail.com Received January 01, 2014; Accepted January 31, 2014; Published February 07, 2014 Citation: Busayo BM, Ojo BY, Adedapo AE, Yusof RNR (2014) Impacts of Tourism on the Economy of Ekiti State. J Tourism Hospit 3: 121. doi:10.4172/2167- 0269.1000121 Copyright: © 2014 Busayo BM, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Keywords: Tourism; Economy; Tourist industry; Infrastructure; Employment Introduction Tourism is an instrument of economic regeneratixon and stability, hence, if properly harnessed, it has the capacity to create wealth, empower the people and generate employment opportunities [1]. he sector has been the economy’s mainstay of many countries worldwide [2,3]. he authors airmed that many countries, such as France, Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, hailand, and many island nations, such as Mauritius, Bahamas, Fiji, Maldives, Philippines and the Seychelles are seriously reaping the beneits of this growing sector. In 2011, the economic contribution of tourism globally was put at about $6.3million in GDP with about 200 million jobs directly created, hence, showing that the industry is contributing signiicantly to the service economy of the world with enormous potentials for socio-economic development [4]. Ekiti State is greatly endowed with tourist resources relative to other countries of the world [1]. Travel and Tourism Economic Impact Assessment on Nigeria in 2012 by the World Travel and Tourism Council [5], revealed that the Ekiti State has the required tourist resources to enhance her economic landscape and hence, witness steady growth economically. he report airmed that tourist resources in Ekiti State fall into hotels or resorts, recreational parks, wildlife, natural sceneries, cultural festivals, historical relics and monuments [1] hence, richly blessed with abundant tourist resources [3]. he state was created on the 1st of October 1996 by the then Provisional Ruling Council (PRC). Carved out of the former Ondo State, Ekiti State is made up of Ekiti Central, Ekiti North, Ekiti South and Ekiti West senatorial districts [6]. he state is located between latitudes 7°25’ and 80°5’N and between longitudes 4°45’ and 5°46 east. hus, bound to the South of Kwara and Kogi States, Osun State to the west, Edo State to the East and Ondo State in the South [7]. he landlocked nature of Ekiti State made the state not to have coastal boundary. he apex of the administrative areas of the Ekiti State is the capital, Ado Ekiti as shown in Figure 1. Apart from the unique location of the Ekiti State, she hosts major tourist resources such as: (i) Ikogosi Warm and Cold Spring Resort; (ii) Efon-Alaaye Waterfall; (iii) Oriole Hills, Ikere Ekiti; (iv) Olosunta Hills; (v) Ewi’s Palace, Ado Ekiti; (vi) Fajuyi Memorial Park; (vii) Ero Dam and Lake; (viii) Ipole-Iloro Waterfall; (ix) Erin Ayonigba Sacred Fish River and (x) Oroke Ewo War Centre to mention but a few [2]. Despite the abundant tourist resources in Ekiti State, the National Bureau of Statistics (2010) on the poverty proile for Nigeria ranked the state as the 14th state in Nigeria in terms of the incidence of poverty [8]. Olorunfemi conducted Ekiti state poverty headcount [9]. he study revealed that 48%, 71% and 62% share of the populace in Ekiti Central, Ekiti North and Ekiti South senatorial districts respectively are poor. he study further shows that about 61%, 55% and 67% of the rural populace in Ekiti Central, Ekiti North and Ekiti South senatorial districts respectively are poor. Sola in a study of the analysis of poverty in Ekiti State revealed that the state has a very high dependency ratio in her three senatorial districts [10]. he percentage of household member that are 12 years or less of age in the state was high in all the three senatorial districts. he study further shows high income gap disparities. Figure 1: Showing the Map Ekiti State. Abstract This study aims to examine the importance of tourism in the economy of Ekiti State, South West Nigeria. A survey was carried out in 6 local government areas in the state using multi-stage sampling approach. A sample size of 300 was used in line with recommendations in (Barrett and Kline, 1981; Aleamoni, 1976). 249 questionnaires were received and about 247 was validated after data clearing. The result reveals that the respondents did not perceive strongly on the contributions of tourism to employment generation, income provision and infrastructure development in Ekiti State. Practical and theoretical contributions of the study are discussed, with future research suggested.