RURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH SOUTH NIGERIA CHALLENGES AND PROSPECT A STUDY OF YENOGOA IN BAYELSA STATE

INTRODUCTION
Every State, Bayelsa State inclusive, has its sources of socio-economic development. The sources may include, but not limited to agriculture, oil and gas (petroleum), trade and investment (import and export business), education, health, tourism and hospitality, etc. Before and after the Nigerian political independence, agriculture was the major source of the country’s socio-economic growth and development, followed by other sectors. With the discovery of oil and its revenue potentials from 1958 to immediately after the Nigerian Civil War (1967 – 1970), the petroleum sector took over all other sources of the country’s revenue, gross national product (GNP) or National Income. It was unfortunate that the tourism sector was neglected or not realized or given adequate attention it deserved or ought to deserve not realizing that tourism centers are God’s creation; particularly those that were not man-made like wonderful spring, a terrific fall, wonderful outcrop of rocks, long terrain of beautiful plateau ground, etc (Etek, Eze and Esu 2012).

Tourism, according to Nwidum (2007), is expected to foster economic growth through foreign exchange earnings and increase in state revenue and, at a second level, on improvement in the people’s well-being in the areas of job creation, revenue/income distribution and balanced regional development. It is unfortunate that tourism development in Bayelsa State has been threatened by such factors like financial problems, infrastructural constraints like poor road network, electricity, drinkable water, health facilities and lack of awareness among The Yenogoa people on the benefits of tourism to the expected tourists and other Nigerians.

Keeping all these sources of socio-economic development of Bayelsa state constant and focusing on tourism, the issues this write up addressed are: what actually is tourism, why tourism, what are the tourism attractions in Bayelsa State, how are they developed, what have been their contributions to the socio-economic development of the Nigerian nation, the obstacles or challenges to their development and the prospects to enable the country meet the global competitiveness through tourism potentials and development?

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Nowadays, tourism is an important economic sector in many countries. Between 2004 and 2020, the World Tourism Organization (WTO) forecasts that international travel will increase from 760 million trips per annum to 1.5 billion trips (WTO, 1998). If domestic trips are included, the 2020 total will be 15 billion trips per annum. Globally, tourism is a $625 billion industry, the single largest non-government economic sector in the world (WTO, 2005). Europe registers a falling growth rate from about 4 (the period: 1980-2001) to 3 percent (the period: 1995-2020); the regions with a dynamic growth rate are all related with Asia. The globalisation of the tourism and hospitality industry has led to a rapid expansion of tourism businesses on an international scale in order to expand their market share and profitability.

As Okonkwo (2006) points out, the enormous growth tourism has experienced in the past 50 years, also as a consequence of technological advancements in sectors such as transportations, Internet etc, which brought the world’s many destinations, no matter how far, within reach, has resulted in a much stronger interconnectedness and complexity within the tourism system and made the industry in many regions around the world an important factor in their socio-economic development.

However, these processes have also opened businesses up to a wider set of “global risks” involved in running businesses at such a scale, as globalisation is often seen as complex and chaotic Aremu, (2001). Tourism and hospitality industry is often described as a fragile industry in that demand for travel is highly susceptible to numerous shocks, such as wars, outbreaks of deadly contagious diseases, incidents of terrorism, economic fluctuations, currency instability, energy crises, and so on. Many scholars have noted increasing number of disasters and crises, which affect the tourism and hospitality industry, ranging from natural to human influenced incidents. In recent years the global tourism industry has experienced many serious crises and disasters including terrorist attacks, political instability, economic recession, bio security threats and natural disasters Aremu, D. A. (2001). The globalization of hospitality and tourism market is so remarkable that small scale crises in one part of the world can have a significant impact on other parts of the world. Contemporary crises do not recognize or respect national borders and do not confine themselves to a particular policy area (say health or energy).
Tourism is therefore highly susceptible to external factors and pressures in the wider operating environment. However, tourism is also an important economic sector for many countries and many destinations are dependent upon tourism for their growth and survival.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Tourism is expected to foster economic growth through foreign exchange earnings and increase in state revenue and, at a second level, on improvement in the people’s well-being in the areas of job creation, revenue/income distribution and balanced regional development. It is unfortunate that tourism development in Bayelsa State and Yenogoa in particular has been threatened by such factors like financial problems, infrastructural constraints like poor road network, electricity, drinkable water, health facilities and lack of awareness among. The Bayelsa people on the benefits of tourism to the expected tourists and other Nigerians.