Improving the cultural and historical tourism resources for sustainable development in Ondo State – A survey of Idanre Hills and resort centre, Idanre

Abstract

It has been observed that necessary attention has not been given to Idanre hills and resort centre as tourists’ attraction and its sustainability is being threatened. Thus, this paper revealed that many studies have been carried out on Idanre hills and resort centre but had only focused on its beautifications, geo – tourism potentials, landscape management, maintenance and tourists’ patronage pattern. Hence, the objectives of this study revealed possible strategies of making the cultural and historical tourism attraction of Idanre hills and resort centre sustainable for both this generation and the future generation and how these strategies can specifically be of economic and social benefits to the residents of Idanre community for sustainable livelihood. The study adopted oral interview, personal observation and administration of questionnaire for data collection of which 200 questionnaires were administered and 188 were returned representing 94.00%. Meanwhile, the questionnaires were presented and analyzed with the use of simple percentage method while percentage point of t – test distribution (One – tailed) analysis was adopted in validation of the hypothesis. The result indicated that t (calculated) was 0.13 and was greater than t (tabulated) of -2.92; thus, the null hypothesis was rejected, while the alternative hypothesis was accepted, which states that there are promising economic and social benefits of specifically developing and sustaining the cultural and historical tourism resources of Idanre hills and resort centre. The study concluded that if Ondo State Government and relevant tourism stakeholders should put the necessary strategies in making the cultural and historical tourism resources of Idanre hills and resort a haven in place; its development will have specific economic and social benefits such as economic stability and social integration etc on the residents of Idanre community and Ondo State at large by stimulating its local economy both directly and indirectly through multiplier effects.