ABSTRACT
The tourism
industry has been identified as a very vital and popular global human activity
that now becomes an economic booster which can contribute to the economic
development of Nigeria. However, tourism industry in Nigeria has not been
exploited to generate the expected contribution to the socio economic
development of the country. One of the major reasons for this problem is the
non-application of marketing strategies especially in the areas of promotion.
This study thus examined the effect of marketing strategy on tourism patronage
in Southwest Nigeria.
The study
adopted a survey research design. A population made up of all tourism destinations
in Southwest Nigeria with population of 85 staff was surveyed and the total
enumeration method of sampling was used. A structured questionnairewas adapted
and validated. The questionnaires returned were 74 which is 87% response rate.
Twenty administrative officers in the tourism centre were also interviewed. The
Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients for the constructs ranged between 0.72 and 0.93.
The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential (hierarchical
regression) statististics.
Findings revealed
that there was a significant effect of product planning and development on
tourism patronage in Southwest Nigeria (r = 0.628; F(1,83) =590.822;
Adj. R2 = .421; p = <0.05); there was negative
and significant relationship between price
and tourism patronage(r = -0.674; p< 0.05); there was significant influence of
Promotion on Tourism Patronage in Southwest Nigeria (r= .327; F(1.83)=153.527;Adjusted
R2= .158; p<0.05); there was
significant effect of place on tourism patronage in Southwest Nigeria
(r=.370 F(I,83)=26.181; p <0.05); there
was statistically significant impact of process on tourism
patronage of selected tourism destinations (r=114;F(1,83)=15.863;
Adjusted R2=.016; p <0.05); twhere
was significant
relationship between People (Personnel) and tourism patronage (r = 0.660, p
<0.05); there was significant relationship between Physical Evidence and
Tourism Patronage in South West Nigeria (r = 0.530, p <0.05). The findings further revealed that policies significantly moderated the
relationship between Marketing Strategy and Tourism Patronage (r = .899,
F (1, 70) = 11.511, R2 = 0.370, p < 0.05).
The study concluded that relative contribution of each of the independent
variables (7ps of marketing strategy) to the tourism patronage, the
standardized co-efficient (Beta weights, β) of the variables indicate that
people made the highest contribution (β = .710, t = 5.119, p<.05); this is followed by physical environment (β=
.427, t = 9.397, p<.05); and this is followed by process (β= .383, t =
8.255,p<.05). The study concluded that people made the highest contribution (β = 710, t = 5.119, p<.05), followed by
physical environment (β= .427, t = 9.397, p<.05); and followed by process
(β= .383, t = 8.255,p<.05). It was recommended that tourism business
in Nigeria should adopt marketing strategy to enhance its performance. The
Federal Government of Nigeria should also make adequate provisions for tourism
development in Nigeria.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
Nigeria’s revenue profile comprises of
oil and gas and non-oil sectors. The oil and gas sector contributes over 70% to
the total revenue of the Federation Account (Jones, Ihendinihu & Nwaiwu,
2015). Also, findings of previous scholars on the Nigerian economy reveal the
dominant role of the petroleum industry in the development of the Nigerian
economy (Amodu, 2014; Ibrahim, 2014; Ajibola, 2013; Attah, 2011). The global
perception of Nigeria is a rich oil producing nation but with a growing poverty
index (Yakub, 2008). Similarly, the Central Bank of Nigeria indicates that the
oil and gas sector contributed an average of 77.5% from 1986 to 2012 while the
non-oil sector contributed 22.5% during the same period. Thus, the mono-product
reliance of the Nigerian economy poses future danger to the country’s economy
and it is currently worsened by volatility in the international price of oil
and observable short falls in production resulting from occasional social and
political unrest (Jones, Ihendinihu & Nwaiwu, 2015).
These scholars assert that such circumstances put the nation’s earnings
at risk and portend severe consequences on the economy.
Also, in the pre- independence era, the
contribution of the agricultural sector topped the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
and exceeded every other sector in the economy. In 1960, on the attainment of
political independence, the trend was still the same. During 1964-1965,
agriculture accounted for 55% of GDP and employed 70% of the adult workforce
(Oyelaran and Adeya 2002; & Manyong, Ikpi, Olayemi, Yusuf, Omonona,
Okoruwa, Idachaba 2005.). In 1970, agriculture exported crops like cocoa,
groundnut, cotton, rubber, palm oil, palm kernel etc. accounted for an average
of between 65.75% of Nigerian’s foreign earnings and provided the most
important source of revenue for the federal as well as state governments
through export product and sales taxes (Ekundare, 1973). After Independence the
agricultural sector which was our source of GDP before independence has
suffered for years. Nigeria is no longer a major exporter of cocoa, groundnut,
rubber and palm produce, the cocoa production using mostly obsolete varieties
and over aged trees is stagnant at around 150,000 tonnes annually. There have
been similar decline in groundnut, palm oil and other major exports (Martins
and Olarinde, 2014). This has
resulted into corruption, unemployment, social unrest, violence and
deprivation.
According to Akinlo (2012) the high
revenues from oil presented net wealth which gave birth to opportunity for
increased expenditure and investment. Furthermore, the high revenues
complicated macroeconomic management and also made the economy highly oil
dependent. Sabiu and Reza (2014) explain
that the downstream sector of the oil generates problem for the country over
the years as it is the distributing arm that links the product to the consumer.
This sector is characterized by incessant crises in supply of products due to
frequent break down of Nigeria’s four refineries which gave rise to supply
shortages, scarcity of products at retail outlets and many other vices in
Nigeria such as black market, pipeline vandalism, product diversion and
hoarding (Sabiu& Reza 2014). Also, Akinlo (2012) establishes that regulatory
constraints and security risks have limited new investment in oil and gas, and
Nigeria’s oil production contracted in 2012 and 2013. Gregory & Ajibola
(2013) support Sabiu and Reza (2014) and declare that despite its strong
fundamentals, oil-rich Nigeria has been identified by low standard of living.
Economic diversification and strong growth have not translated into a
significant decline in poverty levels – over 62% of Nigeria’s 170 million
people live in extreme poverty (Nigeria 3zEconomic Profile 2015).
Furthermore, Gregory
and Ajibola (2013) reveal that there is upward growth of youth unemployment
which becomes a significant contributor to the rise in social unrest and crime
such as the Niger Delta Militancy, Boko Haram and Jos Crisis. The International
Monetary Fund, World Economic Data Base (2015) indicates spiral increase in
unemployment rate in Nigeria over the years, e.g. in 2009 unemployment rate is
19.7% which is 32.21% increase to 2008, 2010 witnessed 21.1% unemployment rate
and in 2011 there was 23.9% unemployment rate given a percentage change of
13.27%. The youth of the nation are the most impacted with youth unemployment
rate of over 50% (Gregory &
Ajibola, 2013). There is a need to develop alternative source of revenue and
employment to enable this country to come out of its present challenges. Iyiola
(2014) stresses the fact that Nigeria economy has relied on oil as source of
income for too long and advises that economy that relies solely on the pillar
of one commodity will eventually run into problem. The fluctuation of price of
oil in the international market necessitates Nigeria’s needs to explore other
sectors of the economy to diversify its income base. Ayeni and Ebohon (2012)
confirm that tourism industry has been identified to contribute to economic
development of Nigeria. Adaora (2010) discovers that tourism industry
contributes to socio economic and political development of many countries in
the world, particularly, Nigeria. He declares that tourism is a very vital and
popular global human activity that now becomes an economic booster. One fact
that is quite glaring about tourism in Nigeria is that the sector has
potentials to generate significant foreign exchange earnings, employment and
investments towards economic development (Ogunberu 2011; Adaora, 2010).It has
been established thatWorld travel and tourism is an important contributor to economic
growth and development and the global growth in international tourist arrivals
is greater than national income growth one out of every two years over the past
30 years ( Baker 2014). Baker (2014)
further established that the growth continues as international tourism sector
account for one in every 12 jobs and 30% of the world’s services export (WTO,
2013). Baker (2014) discovered that receipt from international tourism in
destinations around the world grew by 4% in 2012 reaching US $219 billion in
receipts and record in receipts from international passenger transport brings
total export generated by international tourism in 2012 to US $1.3 trillion
(WTO, 2013).For many developing countries, tourism serves as the primary export
industry. Jenkins (1990) critique tourism policies in developing countries and
concluded that as a path to development tourism is an attractive option because
people from richer nations a growing urge to visit faraway places.
“Kenya provide a good example of a developing
country that has embraced tourism as a tool for socio-economic development
because it has increasingly become a popular tourist destinations for visitors
from Europe, North America and emerging tourist-generating regions particularly
South-East Asia” (Akama Kieti, 2007). Akama and Kieti (2007) established that
the country receives over 6% of the total international tourist arrivals to
Africa and it has boosted Kenya’s economy steadily over the 40years.Francos and
Don (1980) also found that despite the perception of some serious negative
aspects Santa Marta residents consider the overall impact of tourism to be
beneficial thereby encourage their government to offer more economic incentives
and eliminate any restrictive measures in order to stimulate tourism in the
area.. Mauritaus is another developing
country that was once regarded as an extreme case of mono-crop economy,
depending mainly on the export of sugar but now a reputed exporter of
non-traditional good (textiles) and services (tourism) (Afxentiou &
Serletis 2004). Community based tourism is also gaining prestige all over the
world as an alternative to mass tourism and the interesting discovery is that
tourism development can create jobs and generate wealth, (Tomas, Sandra &
Victor 2011).
In fact, the world tourism organisation (WTO)
factually concludes that Africa will attract about 77.3 million people in 2020
a substantial increment to 27.8 million in 2003.Worldwide tourism increased
from 25 million arrivals in 1950 to 808 million in 2003 resulting in an average
annual growth rate of 6.5%. As a continent, Africa has experienced an increase
in tourist arrivals from 8.4 million to 10.6 Million and receipts growth from
$2.3 Billion to $3.7 Billion (Ibrahim, 2014; TTCL, 2013). The Government of
Nigeria has also given attraction to tourism. However, tourism industry in
Nigeria has not been exploited to generate the expected contribution to the
socio economic development of the country (Gregory & Ajibola 2013).
Consequently, one of the major reasons
for this problem is the non-application of marketing strategies especially in
the areas of promotion. Iyiola and Akintunde, (2011) affirm that much work has
not been done in the area of tourism marketing in Nigeria and that promotion
strategies are particularly invaluable to tourism business in Nigeria due to
its characteristics such as being intangible and immobile. The characteristics
of tourism product which makes it impossible to taste or test the benefits
expected before purchase and more so cannot be moved from its location while it
is still intangible, meaning that customers cannot hold, touch, taste the
product until it is purchased, makes
proper marketing strategy necessary to have an effective tourism demand
and patronage. Therefore, this research has investigated the impact of
marketing strategy for tourism in the Southwest Nigeria.Marketing strategy are
very basic activities required to link the tourism product with potential
tourism market either at international or national levels.
Despite
the advocacy of tourism as an economic booster, the industry failed to grow as
expected especially in Africa and sub-Saharan African countries due to lack of
effective marketing strategy. Though
Sub-Saharan African countries and Nigeria in particular have quite a lot of
attractive destinations.( Baker ,2014; Esu,2013; & Adaora,2010 ); there are some challenges such as poor
infrastructure, image crisis, political instability, security issue and
ineffective market positioning Therefore
tourism destination should put into
consideration marketing strategy that can properly position tourism product
locally, nationally and internationally .
Marketing strategy is an organization’s effort directed at
identification of market segment and target market, determination of uses of
the 7ps of marketing mix that are product, price, place, promotion, people,
process and physical (Divya, 2013). Rajan (2010) concisely refers to marketing
strategy as organizations framework that is used to manage the marketing
behavior of firms in the realms of 4ps (product, promotion, price and place).
This
study directs its aim and objective on successful implementation of tourism
programme through the use of the 7ps of marketing mix which are product, price,
place, promotion, people, process and physical environment. To achieve these objectives the study
postulates hypothesis on the significant effect of each one of the 7ps of marketing
mix on tourism patronage and the Southwest of Nigeria is used as case study.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The tourism business has the potential
to provide a very good substitution to the country’s oil revenue if it is
properly managed. The beliefs that tourism has the potential to catalyze the
economies of developing nations were based on research and empirical evidences
and not just political inclination (Esu, 2013). This has been recognized by the
Nigerian government which has established the Nigerian tourism development
master plan in 2005. In spite of this, the Nigerian tourism sector is not
growing as expected while the fast growth is recorded globally. (Ibrahim, 2014)
The contribution of tourism revenue to Nigeria Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is
low compared to other countries. Nigeria GDP in 2014 was $568.51 billion
compared to Australia $1453.77 billion, Brazil $2346.12 billion, China
$10360.10 billion, France $2829.19 billion, India $2066.90 billion, Germany
$3852.26 billion, U.K $2941.89 billion (Iyiola, 2014; Tunde, 2012 &
WTTC,2012).
The value of GDP
contributed by Agriculture, Construction, Manufacturing, Mining, and Public
Administration to GDP of 2014 are
clearly indicated while that from tourism is not. The poor performance of
tourism in Nigeria is also due to the country’s poor international image
(Iyiola, 2014). The current marketing approach is weak and the promotion of
Nigeria as tourist destination lacks a strategic marketing approach (Iyiola
& Akintunde, 2011). Government of
developing countries treat international tourists as a key imperative in
tourism market because they stay around for longer period at a destination and
use standard accommodation and transport thereby earning currency that
contributes to host country’s Gross Domestic Products (Clarke 2001). Further,
it is found that tourism services and facilities in Nigeria tourism destination
lack marketing strategy; the marketing mix elements are not framed to reflect
its specific application (Pilot Study, 2015).This results in very low patronage
of tourism destination in Nigeria and contributes to the low gross domestic
product from tourism. This is evident from the World Bank indicator (2013)
which finds that the international tourism expenditure in U.S dollars in
Nigeria in the year 2012 is $52,601,313,000 which is quite low compared with
China that is $102 billion, Germany $83.7 billion among other countries.
This study has examined if marketing
strategy can significantly improve tourism patronage to boost the GDP in
Nigeria. Nigeria offers a wide variety of tourist attractions. However, many of
these attractions are still largely untapped and are even at their raw state
due to lack of modern infrastructural facilities. Iyando and Haruna (2013)
declared that one of the most important among these facilities is the
transportation services and it is an impediment to tourism in Nigeria. Eze and
Ezeani (2014), in line with these authors explains that transport industry
provides the link between dwelling and destination regions of tourists, but the
industry’s role as an agent responsible for making tourist reach these
destinations has not been considered. Distribution or place management is one of
the marketing strategies; hence, there is a need to confirm the relationship
between distribution or place management and tourism patronage in Nigeria.
Although Esu (2013) asserts that research and empirical evidences reveal that
tourism has the potential to catalyze the economy of developing nations;
previous researchers on tourism marketing in Nigeria are very small and most
works on tourism in Nigeria are mere propositions and they have not been
empirically tested (Iyiola 2014; Tunde, 2012 & WTTC, 2012 ). This study has
empirically examined the impact of marketing strategy on tourism patronage in
Nigeria using selected tourism destinations in the Southwest Nigeria as case
study.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The major objective of this study is to
determine if there is any relationship between marketing strategy and tourism
patronage in the Southwest Nigeria. The specific objectives are to:
determine
the effect of product planning and development on tourism patronage in the
Southwest Nigeria;
investigate
the relationship between price and tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria;
1.
discover the effect of promotion on
tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria;
2.
assess the effect of distribution
strategy on tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria;
3.
determine the relationship between
people (or personnel) on tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria;
4.
evaluate the effect of process on
tourism patronage in the SouthwestNigeria
5.
examine the relationship between
physical evidence and tourism patronage inSouthwest Nigeria; and
6.
estimate the moderating effect of
government policies on the relationship between marketing strategy and tourism patronage
in the SouthwestNigeria.
1.4 Research Questions
The
following are the research questions:
1.
What effect does product planning and
development have on tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria?
2.
What is the relationship between pricing
strategy and tourism patronage in theSouthwest Nigeria?
3.
What is the effect of promotion on
tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria?
4.
What effect does distribution strategy
have on tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria?
5.
What is the relationship between people
(or personnel) and tourism patronage in the
Southwest
Nigeria?
6.
How does process affect tourism
patronage in the Southwest Nigeria?
7.
What is the relationship between
physical evidence and tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria?
8.
What is the moderating effect of
government policies on the relationship between marketing strategy and tourism
patronage in the Southwest Nigeria?
1.5 Hypotheses
To achieve the objectives of this
research the following hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05
significant levels.
H01: There is no significant effect of
product planning and development on tourism patronage in theSouthwest Nigeria
H02: There is no significant relationship
between price and tourism patronage in Southwest
Nigeria
H03: There is no significant effect of
promotion on tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria
H04: There is no significant effect between
distribution strategy and tourism patronage in
Southwest
Nigeria.
H05: There is no significant relationship
between people (personnel) and tourism patronage in the SouthwestNigeria
H06: There is no significant effect between
Process and Tourism Patronage in the SouthwestNigeria
H07: There is no significant relationship
between physical evidence and tourism patronage in the SouthwestNigeria
H08: There is no significant moderating
effect of government policies on the relationship between marketing strategy
and tourism patronage in the Southwest Nigeria?
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