Perception, Preference and Attitudes of Residents Toward Tourism Development: A Case of Cross River State, Nigeria

This study investigated the perception and attitudes of residents of an emerging tourism destination and implication for tourism development and marketing. A combination of convenience and cluster sampling design was used to draw a sample size of 380 urban residents. A self administered structured questionnaire was used to collate data. Five attitudes variables were investigated-perceived socio-economic benefits, preference for tourism type, support for tourism activities, difference in attitudes based on age and employment type. The study revealed that residents’ perception on the likelihood of tourism to offer the expected benefits was high for all the socio-economic variables used in the study. Residents’ preference was high for entertainment, business tourism and recreation tourism and low for health, religious tourism. Perceive tourism benefits, preference for tourism types were found to be explanatory. Age and employment type were not explanatory variable for differences in attitudes toward tourism development. The implication is that results could inform the design for tourism planning and marketing.