Social Insecurity and the Development of Tourism in Nigeria: the Niger Delta Experience, 2004 -2009

Social insecurity is increasingly becoming a permanent feature of the Nigerian social formation. The Niger Delta region of South-south Nigeria has had more than a fair share of social insecurity which is believed to have adversely affected industries and tourism industry in particular. It is on this premise that this study sets out to investigate the impact of social insecurity on development of tourism and hospitality industry in Niger-Delta region of Nigeria between 2004 and 2009. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using test inferential statistics at 95% level of significance. The study adopted a survey research designs and three hundred and forty-five (345) respondents were purposively selected from the sampled states. A structured questionnaire tagged: Social insecurity and tourism development questionnaire was used to gather data. This instrument had a reliability co-efficient (SITNDQ) of r=0.8 and it was the main instrument used for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using percentage, mean and standard deviation scores, while the Z-test statistics was employed to test the hypotheses. The results obtained showed among others, that social insecurity negatively impacted on tourism development in the Niger Delta region within the period of study. Secondly, there was also a very strong association between the level of social insecurity and downward trends in all the measured variables: growth in tourism, foreign direct investment, and employment generation within the period of study. Based on these findings the study concluded that issues concerning poverty, unequal access to resources, and large youth populations with limited access to education or jobs, and other socio-political factors which contributed to the prevalence of social insecurity in the region should be addressed. Sequel to this, the study recommended that the government should critically address the welfare and developmental needs of the people of the Niger Delta region as a proper articulation of policies to address these issues will ward-off social insecurity and restore social order. Again, as a socio-economic activity that has the potential of raising the standards of living of the people, government should create awareness that tourism development is a sure way to eradicate abject poverty among rural communities in the region. Finally, since investors in the tourism industry are concerned about the security of their investments, and as well as their personal safety of tourists, government should direct effort towards modernizing the security agencies and institutions, and also seek assistance from developed countries to enhance the operational capabilities of the country's security agencies.