Exloring the Tourism Potentials of Cultural Landscape of Nupe Communities in Central Nigeria

Abstract

Tourism has been identified as one of the major socio-economic activity in the world. The importance of tourism has also seen it being promoted as a key driver for socio-economic progress of nations. Albeit cultural landscapes are uniquely constituted and thus they offer the premise for tourism attraction. The Nupe cultural landscape has been found to have rich cultural heritage, but with limited exposure to the global community the tourism potentials. More also is that tourism destinations are not limited to physical landscape but also includes the social transactions of the people who inhabit such environment. Markedly, the Nupe communities in central Nigeria are characterised with varying landscapes which includes riverine as well as the upland settlement. However, little studies exist on the cultural landscape transactions of the Nupe communities. More also is that tourism potentials of communities are enhanced through the understanding of how indigenous communities perceived their landscape. As such this research embarked upon a qualitative documentation of cultural landscape values of some selected Nupe communities in Central Nigeria which include Bida, Kutigi, Nupeko and Patigi local government in Niger and Kwara States respectively. This involved participants observations as well as the conduct of interviews on resident of selected riverine and upland Nupe communities. In the exploratory study, elicitation of data laid emphasis on both built and un-built features of the cultural landscapes which were perceived as valuable to the residents. The finding showcases a plethora of cultural landscape values of Nupe communities with inherent tourism potentials.