ASSESSMENT OF THE TOURISM POTENTIALS OF GURARA AND MAYANKA WATERFALLS IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Niger State has been blessed with various tourist attraction sites and of which Gurara and Mayanka waterfalls are among. So it’s in view of the vast opportunities these tourist sites have this study assessed the tourism potentials of Gurara and Mayanka waterfalls in Niger State, Nigeria. The primary sources of data used in this thesis include questionnaire administration, oral interview and reconnaissance survey. The secondary data used were journals, textbooks and conference materials, as well as Niger State Government documents on tourism of the study areas. These were used to achieve the stated objectives. The methods of data analysis used include frequency percentage, arithmetic mean and four-point rating scale. The result revealed that Gurara waterfall attracts both Nigerians and Foreigners while Mayanka waterfalls attract Nigerians (locals) as perceived by the respondents. The result shows that strongly agreed ranked the highest with 164 respondents, while no respondent disagreed in Gurara waterfalls. In Mayanka waterfall, disagree ranked highest with 64 respondents and strongly disagree ranked the least with 42 respondents. The result also shows that 189 respondents strongly agree that there exist tourism master plan for Gurara waterfall, 116 respondents strongly disagree for tourism master plan for Mayanka waterfall. This implies that only Gurara waterfall has tourism master plan but the implementation of the master plan was very low. The possible constraints of tourism in the study areas include lack of political will, lack of strategic marketing, lack of promotional programmes, and lack of proposed event product development; like festivals. Lack of political will ranked highest with 110 respondents and lack of promotional programmes ranked least with 46 respondents. This implies that the major possible constraint was lack of political will for the tourism sites. Tourist attractions in Gurara and Mayanka Waterfalls in Niger State are largely undeveloped as there is barely any onsite accommodation. Ultimately this negatively influences tourism as tourists are forced to limit their stay. It’s therefore recommended that tourism could flourish at Gurara and Mayanka Waterfalls in Niger State through proper co-operation and co-ordination of the key players which include tourism investors, Niger State Government, Host Communities and Local Government Authority.