Assessment of Revenue Generation Avenues in Ecotourism Destinations of Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

Inadequacy of information on marketable tourism products per ecotourism destination has led to erronous packaging of unviable products in many tourism sites in Nigeria. Avenues of revenue generation in ecotourism destinations of Plateau State, Nigeria was studied using information obtained through structured questionnaires, field survey and administrative records. A set of structured questionnaires were randomly administered to 50% of tourism officials in Rayfield Resort (RR), Naraguta Tourist Village (NTV), Jos Wildlife Park (JWLP), Jos National Museum and Zoo (JNMZ), Assop Falls (AF), and Pandam Wildlife Park (PWLP). In all, 268 officials were sampled. Data collected were subjected to descriptive analysis in form of
percentages, graphs and frequency of counts. All respondents (100%)
identified poverty as a factor militating against revenue generation in all

tourism sites. Crises / fear affects revenue generation in JNMZ (100%) and NTV (100%); being tourism sites in Jos North Local Government; and JWLP (60.5%) located in Jos South Local Government Area. Other factors are poor funding in PWLP (90.0%), JWLP (80.2%), NTV (86.2%) and JNMZ (65.3%); and location of PWLP (100%). Low patronage (100%) and lack of awareness (100%) limit revenue generation in PWLP and AF that are located outside Jos city. Facilities in PWLP and RR are under utilized. Also, inadequacy of facilities limits revenue generation in PWLP (60.0%), JNMZ(60.0%), RR(60.9%) and NTV (58.6%). Revenue generation through gate fees in JNMZ was highest in 2003 followed by 2002 and 2004 while that of JWLP was highest in 2002 as affected by seasonality. Between 1999 and 2004, the month of December had relatively high revenues due to festivities.

Keywords: Revenue generation, ecotourism destination, Plateau State,
Assessment, Avenues