Infrastructure and Tourism Development in Nigeria: The Case Study of Rivers State

This study examined the relationship between Infrastructure and tourism development in Rivers State, Nigeria. Purposive sampling method was applied to select ten tourist destinations for the study. During a cross-sectional survey, interviews were held with key informant, along with a checklist of infrastructure to collect relevant data for the study. Data on infrastructure were obtained from secondary sources. The level of infrastructure development was measured on a scale 1-5 (that is, very low 1, low 2, moderate 3, high 4, very high 5) using a researcher-made instrument called "measure of infrastructure score". Multiple correlation and Stepwise regression analysis was applied to analyse data obtained from the field. Results showed a high significant relationship between the sets of infrastructure components (water, electricity, transport, communication and accommodation) and tourism development. Furthermore, transport infrastructure was found to contribute a significant proportion to the total variance in tourism development thereby proving to be the most important element of tourism development. The study therefore concluded that massive infrastructure development anchored on transportation would provide the enabling environment for tourism to thrive in Nigeria and Rivers State in particular.