An Assessment of The Suitability of Designated Tourist Sites in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

As the argument continues to favour tourism in the discussions surrounding income generation, it has become pertinent to ascertain the viability of areas designated as tourism sites. The feasibility of tourist sites is enhanced by the availability of support infrastructure such as roads, hotels, terminals among others. This paper assessed the suitability of designated tourist sites for tourism in Kaduna State. A  Handheld GPS was used to capture the geographic coordinates of the designated tourist sites which were overlaid on the base map of Kaduna State in order to map their distribution.  The Analytical Hierarchy Process was deployed to assign weights to hotels, hospitals, transport terminals, police station, community remoteness, elevation, slope and roads.  The Euclidean distance of hotels, police stations, hospitals, roads among others was calculated using ArcGIS 10.8 software to establish their proximity to the tourist sites.  The results showed that 38%, 29%, and 33% of the sites were located in senatorial zones 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Further findings revealed that 84% of the tourist sites were owned by the government. About 69% of the sites were moderately suitability for tourism activities while only 3.2% had high suitability. However, none of the sites was found in the very high suitability category while 28% had low suitability for tourism activities. The study recommends that the Government should provide amenities like roads and incentivize investment in lodging options. Additionally, security should be prioritized so that tourists can feel safe and secured when visiting the sites.