Engendering sustainable socio-spatial environment for tourism activities in the south eastern nigeria: the place of environmental planning and management process

The South Eastern part of Nigeria was a single state of the twelve states of Nigeria before 1976 ? East Central State. Presently, the area is made up of five states. This Paper presents a study carried out to assess the possibility of knitting the once-one-state and presently five states, together to form a tourist destination worthy of international importance. Although the unprecedented dearth of infrastructural development in the zone continues to be a subject of discussion, little attention has been given to investigate the place of synergized intervention. Descriptive analysis was employed, in which the tourism potentials in the zone that are of national recognition were itemized. Data were collected on available amenities, resident population and accessibility of such potentials. Existing literature on various Environmental Management Systems were explored to elicit a system that is capable of affording a sustainable environment for tourism matters in the zone. The study revealed that the zone exhibits similar socio-economic and physical characteristics that are replete with potentials for improvement for optimum tourism utility in the entire zone. Several measures were advanced in the study to achieve this, chief of which is the adoption of the Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) process.