CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Tourism is the temporary movement to destinations outside the normal home and workplace, the activities undertaken during the stay and the facilities created to cater for the needs of tourists (Mathieson and Wall, 1982 in Cooper etal, 1993). It can also be defined as the act or practice of traveling temporarily out of ones‟ place of abode; it is a social phenomenon (Omeje, 2006).
Tourism has to take place in an area, which is usually referred to as destination. It is pertinent to say that once a tourist leaves his/her society, town or community to a new destination he travels with idiosyncrasies of his/her community and if not informed might exhibit such character in his/her destination which might not be acceptable to the new communities way of life. Tourism destination be it cultural, historical or ecotourism exists in a community. Tourism attractions do not exist in isolation of human community, therefore, communities are directly affected as a result of tourists‟ traffic, because tourist in-flow to any destination will definitely affect or change a community political, socio-cultural, economic and ecosystem.
A tourists‟ stay and activities affect a community depending largely on the number of days he/she stays in a community. All the things needed to take care of tourists are either derived from the immediate host community or its neighbors, usually the host communities provides whatever tourists need to make their stay worthwhile and memorable.
Because of this most communities, countries always make a meticulous and well calculated method in planning for tourism in their countries, state and communities alike. Though tourism may be seen as a greener pasture for developing countries, it can at the same time destroy culture and environment if not properly planned. In view of this, it is relevant that host communities where tourism attractions, industries and destinations are located be properly involved in whatever type of planning tourism and development that is going to take place in their community so that the attendant benefits that will be accruing from developing tourism attractions which will be of immense benefits to the people of the rural areas or host communities who either owns or partake in making of the destinations.
Tourism officials and stakeholders are to take cognizance of the people‟s dos and don‟ts, what they expect from tourism and what kind of benefits therein, were demerits are identified it will be mitigated or reduced with care as long as it does not supersede the overall benefits of the development. Based on this, this study aims at knowing tourism attractions in Anambra state and identifying the level of community involvement in tourism attractions like cultural activities such as: New yam and Ofala festivals in specific towns, and other attractions that will be identified and studied. Are the people involved in tourism planning and development?; To asses and document the social, political and economic benefits of studied attractions in their host communities.
Secondly, to take an inventory of some of the attractions in the state ranging from, cultural, man-made and natural attractions, to identify the dangers of non-community involvement in tourism planning and make possible suggestions for effective community involvement in tourism planning. All these form the hallmark of this study.
1.1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
There is a tourism slogan that says that, “tourism is like a fire, it can cook your meal or destroy it.” Most tourism destinations occur in rural communities and without proper planning tourism tend to be disastrous. Anambra state has a lot of tourism attractions ranging from natural, cultural, historical, archaeological, and traditional religions features. Some of these attractions are gazzetted while some are not, moreover tourism establishments, including the hospitality industry can be seen in every nook and cranny of such cities as Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka. Most of these tourists attractions like Agulu lake that cuts across Nri community, Agulu/Nanka erosion sites, Ogbunike cave, Igbo-Ukwu archaeological sites and Museums, New yam festival and Ofala festivals, different cultural dances and deities like Imo-awka celebration, Nkpokiti dance and Akunechenu dance etc are located in rural communities used by tourists and tourism stakeholders with little or no input (benefits) from and to the host communities.
Moreover, most tourism destinations have a lot of environmental problems which tourism attractions and destinations in the state are no exception “… experience suggest that considerable investment needs to be undertaken in the environmental management of vulnerable natural assets in order to make rural tourism in any sense sustainable. Tourists are usually most attracted by the industrially least developed regions which are particularly sensitive” (Puczko and Ratz, 1998).
They further maintained that tourism in rural areas changes or damages the rural landscape natural and cultural values of a given region, rearrange social stratification, puts additional pressure on the local community, changes their rhythm of life, threatens their privacy or results in the inauthentic presentation of local customs and traditions, an adapted to the tourists‟ wishes. Tourism has a capacity to boost rural economy through tourists expenditure, are these tourist expenditure being felt by the communities were tourist attractions are located?
All these positive attributes of tourism especially in rural setting necessitated this research, in order to access and obtain the how and the level of local/rural people involvement in tourism.
1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This research is anchored on the following questions:
- What are the tourism attractions and their locations in the state?
- How does the community get involved in tourism attractions?
- What are the benefits that are gotten from these attractions by the communities were they are located?
- What are the dangers of non-community involvement in tourism planning
- What are the possible ways or methods that will lead to effective community participation?
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this study is to look at the tourism attractions in the state, how the people are involved in it and to document the benefits therein.
- To document some of the tourism attractions in the state and know their locations.
- To identify areas and where these communities participate or are involved in tourism planning and promotion in their communities.
- To assess the economic, social, religious and other types of benefits that is gotten from these attractions by the host communities.
- To sample selected tourism attractions in the state and how the people that own them participate in them.
- To know the dangers of non-community involvement in tourism planning and development.
- To marshal out possible solutions and suggestions for effective community involvement in tourism planning and development.
1.4 METHOD OF RESEARCH
Ethnographic method was used in this study because ethnography is the study of human society. It is concerned with the way of life or culture of contemporary people namely economy, political system, kinship relation, ideas, morals, technology and crafts among others (Okpoko and Ezeh, 2005). This method was also useful due to the nature of the study which is studying communities and their involvement with tourism attractions in their environs which is invariably part of peoples‟ culture especially the shrines and festivals. The data that was used for the writing of this research were gotten through the following means: primary and secondary data while direct observation and photographic documentation of some of the important information or data were also gotten.
The primary source of data include, in-depth interview, this was selected among other types of research method because it allows for interviewer-interviewee verbal interactions or conservations. In-depth interviews or depth interviews, as it is also called, provide opportunities for respondents to talk freely and in detail on the subject of interest and a relative large amount of information has to be collected in a short period of time and from a small number of respondents (Obikeze 1990). Therefore, the researcher designed an interview guide that will help in getting information needed for this research and where necessary the researcher allow for free discussion outside the interview guide to get other information which some of the respondents may be willing to give. Interviews are very challenging and are required personal skills, sensitivity and adaptability including the ability to stay within the bounds of the research theme or the designed protocol (Okpoko and Ezeh, 2005).In depth interview used here entails semi-structured and unstructured interview guide. The reason for this was that it helps in getting information from semi-literate and illiterate people as Heggenhougen and Draper (1990) puts it “this form of interview fosters rapport and it is invaluable when interviewing an illiterate or semi-literate population. It can also generate unexpected information or insights.”Moreover direct observation of most of these attractions especially festivals and shrines were done while photographic documentation was also used.
Secondly, no truly scholarly or scientific publication (or research report) is possible without some form of documentary research (Okpoko and Ezeh, 2005) The secondary sources of information (documentary research) were written literatures from libraries, institutes, personal documentaries, journals, articles, National dailies, and internet (World Wide Web) where of immense importance.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
- The study unmask the tourism potentials in the state to the world and if properly harnessed will make the state one of the tourism haven in Nigeria and west Africa at large because it has all the features to develop beach tourism around the communities near Omambala river and precisely Agulu and Obutu lake in the state, ecotourism in Ogbunike, Ajalli and Owerre-ezukalla and also have a lot to offer in terms of cultural tourism ranging from Ofala, New yam festival and popular Mmonwu fest
- When all these tourism potentials are harnessed, it will be another huge source of income for the state government, a means for rural development because most of these attractions are located in rural areas of the state and potential investors from the private sector will see the viability of tourism in Anambra state.
- The research will serve as a revelation for National Tourism Development Corporation and make community participation very vital in any tourism development project in order to ensure sustainability.
- Finally, communities in the state will see the advantages of tourism potentials in there areas, help in developing them for present and future benefits and avert or manage the negative consequences of tourism project like: environmental pollution and degradation, commodification of culture and other social vices.
1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Anambra state is made up of about twenty-one local governments; therefore, to have a full documentation of tourism attractions was hindered, why the cost of moving from one local government to another is high, secondly traveling or covering a community within the same local government is still cumbersome. Therefore this study was limited to the following the attractions in different towns: Ofala festival, Top Rank hotel, Onitsha sports club and Onitsha south stadium under construction in Onitsha, New yam festival in Umuawulu in south Awka, Igboukwu museums in Igboukwu, Odinani museum in Nri, Habba-Agulu deity in Agulu, Imo-awka deity in Awka and Caves in Ogbunike, Ajalli and Owerre-ezukalla. The afore written attractions were selected based on nearness like attractions in Onitsha, the town for New yam festival was selected because of its proximity to the researcher‟s town though during the period of this interview they have no king, secondly, it was not the period of the festival so pictures of the festival was adapted from an already written work on New yam festival in another town in Anambra state. Secondly, gratification is now the order of the day, in almost all the areas visited every body wants to be given something at end of the day, even in traditional institutions or attraction this gratification which is usually money limited my activities in Habba-Agulu and Imo-awka shrine and the following demands were made in Imo-awka, I was told to bring: a gallon of palm wine, that will cost one thousand naira(#1000.00), four tubers of yam and a fowl including kola nut while in Habba-Agulu I was told to buy kola nut and was persuaded to kneel before the deity and tell her what my mission was after which I was told to run away that she said that “I can not take picture in the shrine or conduct any form of interview‟. At the long run, one of the chief priests who wanted to make a fast one gave me little information and demanded money with warning not to snap anything. This scenario repeated itself in Idemili shrine that is situated before Agulu-lake where the two chief priests told me to bring, kola nut (Oji), fowl (Okuko), yam (Ji), four tubers, which I told them I will come back later to bring but I did not go back but in Imo-awka the chief priest after asking if I slept with a woman or attended burial I replied “No” he told me that all those demands can be „monetized‟(put in money form) which I did before he gave me audience and allowed me to take pictures of important section of the deityIn a bid to take a picture of Agulu-lake I had to perform some incantations in the lake by myself with kola nut which I bought from Nkwo-Agulu before taking the pictures in order to reduce cost. This type of incidence affected the movement of the researcher to some areas therefore only few pictures of some attractions were taken secretly but that of Onitsha sports club in Onitsha North snapping was not allowed.
