CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The role of transportation in the development of tourism has been and continues to be a controversial issue, it is controversial in the sense that many schools of thought exist concerning its role vis-à-vis development. Storey (1969) and Dawson and Barwell (1993) have for instance classified the impact of transportation on regional development into positive, neutral and negative. In the positive case, transportation acts as a stimulus to further development while the neutral effect applies where transport facilities do not themselves bring about productive activities. The negative case related to situations in which it brings about increase migration, spread of disease or decline in the level of per capital income. Numerous scholars have expressed divergent views, which follow the basic structure of Storey’s classification. For example, Hunter (1965) and Wilson (1966) point out the neutral effect of transport on regional development. Filani (1995) explained the role of transportation on rural development, Salau and Baba (1984) reported the effect of transport on settlements change and development. Eliot Hurst (1974) and Stephen (1998) further states that access has no meaning without resources to be utilized. This implies that the development of transportation infrastructure should occur only where there are resources to be developed; where as in another study, Dodgson (1974) and Chou (1971) also shows that highway construction may not always lead to regional development. The negative effect of transportation on regional development is further demonstrated by Chatzionnou (1989) and Chang (1989). On the other hand the studies by Janelle (1959) Bierman and Rydzkowski (1991) as well as Sammer (1981) in their work have proved that there is a positive impact of transportation on regional development. Thus, while views may differ, the general conclusion is that the development of major transport network can develop tourism which will contribute positively to reconciling environmental protection, economic development and the fight against poverty, (Sammer, 1981; Halsall, 1992 and Pearce, 1997; Curtis and Kokotos, 2009; Brida et al., 2010; Dodds and Butler, 2010). Others went further to observe that little progress has been made by Geographers in this area, which has to do with the relationship between transport facilities recreational and tourism activity that occurs, ( Chubb, 1989; Page, 1993; Hall and Page, 1998a; Brown, 2009) This study therefore, attempts to examine the role of railway transportation in development of tourism using Nigeria as a case study. It is hypothesized that transportation is not a determinant of the development of tourism (as measured by the location of national parks) in Nigeria.

Transport plays an important part in economic growth and globalization, but most times cause air pollution and use large amounts of land. While it is heavily subsidized by governments, good planning of transport is essential to make traffic flow, and restrain urban sprawl.

Infrastructure therefore is a part of structure; material or economic base of a society or an organization. It is a basic structure that fosters the good performance of cities’, states’ or countries’ essential services. In this sense, for a country to have a good logistics infrastructure system in the different modes of transportation, constant investment from both public and private sectors are needed.

The study will pay more attention to road transportation. Since 1960, Nigeria’s road transportation infrastructure has enjoyed the largest outlay of foreign investment compared with other modes and remains the preferred option for door to door linkage. Until recently, the policy initiative on road infrastructure development, funding, maintenance and even operations has been the sole responsibility of the various tiers of government. The overall logistics infrastructure of a nation can be evaluated on the basis of ten categories of major metropolitan indices including: transportation and distribution industry; transport and distribution work force; road infrastructure; road congestion, road conditions, interstate highway accesses, vehicle taxes and fees, railroad access, water ports access and air cargo access.

Tourism is traveling for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people “traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes”. Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. Total volume of cross-border tourist travel international tourist reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 983 million in 2011 and 940 million in 2010 (Tourism Highlights, 2012). In 2011 and 2012 international travel demand continued to recover from the losses resulting from the late 2000s recession where tourism suffered a strong slowdown from the second half of 2008 through 2009. After a 5% increase in the first half of 2008 growth in international tourist arrivals moved into negative territory in the second half of 2008 and ended up only 2% for the year, compared to a 7% increase in 2007 (World Tourism Organization, 2009). The negative trend intensified during 2009 exacerbated in some countries due to the outbreak of the HINI influenza virus, resulting in worldwide decline of 4.2% in 2009 to 880 million international tourist arrivals and a 5.7% decline in international tourist receipts (World Tourism Organization, 2010). With the above statistic it is an evident that the last decade witnesses a slow growth in tourism growth.

This study is on the impact of transportation infrastructure on tourism development in Nigeria with greater emphasis Onyeocha et. al., 49  on road transportation is done to unveil the hindrances to, and prospects in tourism in Nigeria vis-à-vis a workable transport system.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Transportation and tourism has been two phenomenon that has continue to move in the same direction. A decline in the development of transportation infrastructural will definitely reduce the rate of tourism in the country. Tourist needs a good transport network system so as to make movement easy for them.

Base on the research topic, we shall be focusing on railway transport which is a part of the entire transportation system in Nigeria. For the past few decades, the railway transport system has not been effective especially in this part of the world, this is as a result of poor government intervention to upgrade of infrastructural facilities in Nigeria. There exist some tourist site in Nigeria where there is no other types of transport system that can access it apart from railway way transport system, since the system is not functional, it has reduce the rate of tourism in the country. An example is the Tinapa resort, some tourist find it very difficult to access some tourist site apart from the use of railway transport system.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

To determine the impact of railway transportation on tourism development in Nigeria

To determine the role of tourism to economic growth and development in Nigeria

To determine the role of government intervention on railway transport development in Nigeria

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What is the impact of railway transportation on tourism development in Nigeria?

What is the role of tourism to economic growth and development in Nigeria?

What is the role of government intervention on railway transport development in Nigeria?

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The study will be useful to government on how they can simultaneously invest in both railway transportation and tourism which will in turn boost the economy capacity.

The study will also contribute to existing scope of knowledge.

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