Impact of Transportation in the Tourism Industry
Chapter One
Objective of the study
Specific objectives of the study were as follows:
- To assess the current system of road transport used by tourists in Owerri Municipal.
- To assess the impact of transportation on tourism in Imo state.
- To examine coping strategies that are used by tourists to deal with challenging road transport system in Imo state.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
TRANSPORTATION IN TOURISM
Croall (1995, p 1) was exhaustive in his criticism of what he called “the spectre of tourism” which he sees as slowly ruining erstwhile pristine landscapes, quaint communities, as well as polluting the air and water, trivializing cultures, and degrading life on this planet. He puts the blame on poor or lack of visitor management and the level of accessibility of the destination area. Accessibility and tourism activities have broken barriers and opened formerly off-thebeaten-track areas to visitors through aggressive marketing of some far-off paradise with the availability of transport. Transportation in tourism is most often seen as just part of the tourism system which is in charge of bringing the tourists to the destinations, a means of getting around the place and leaving it once the duration of the trip is over. Page and Lumsdon (2004) contend that the transportation system of a tourist destination has an impact on the tourism experience which explains how people travel and why they choose different forms of holiday, destination, and transport. The improvement in transportation modes plus low fares has increased the accessibility of areas once considered off-the-beaten-path. Access to tourism sites vary according to the nature of the site, the state of infrastructure, and the efficiency of the public transport system. The OECD (1988 as cited in Button, 1993) came out with a table outlining the major impacts of transportation on the environment. For land transportation, the rail and roads impact wildlife and habitat when these pass through natural areas, creating divisions in an otherwise contiguous plain. Emissions from road and air transport are the common sources of greenhouse gases and industrialization has not helped much in curtailing the sources. “The transport sector is responsible for over a quarter of the world’s primary energy use, and for about 54 percent of all world oil consumption” (Peters, 2000, p 110). Air and noise pollution accounts for the engine noise from planes, motor vehicles, construction, overhead cable cars, as well as human voices and footfalls (Buckley, 1996).
Access and Modes
Tourism and accessibility may be linked to the level of degradation of the destination. Issues arising from this include the concept of carrying capacity, impacts per capita, and visitor management. How these issues are managed is reflective of the type of tourism being advocated by the operator, the community as well as the government. Accessibility can make or break a destination. There are two streams of argument here: one involves the number of visitors and the other involves number of visitors per capita. The first contend that too much access brings in a bigger number of people that can increase the level of degradation, decrease the experience, and impact the natural state of the resources. The second argument takes into consideration the ratio of visitors to the host population and the level and type of impacts created. On the issue of carrying capacity, Inskeep (1987) acknowledges the fact that areas such as small islands, arid and coastal lands, reefs, mountains and lakes are vulnerable to tourist overuse and overdevelopment and proposes that carrying capacity should be a part of the comprehensive regional and site-specific analysis and planning process. And “it is important to distinguish between capacity based on tourist acceptability and that predicated on environmental deterioration because the two may not be the same” (Inskeep, 1987, p 121). Fennell (2003) and Honey (1999) cited the experience of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador wherein the increase in access started a chain of problems: in the 1970s access to the islands was through cargo ships from Ecuador’s main port in Guayaquil which plied the islands every three months or so but the growing popularity of the islands as a nature enclave spurred the boating business to expand from just five small boats in the early 70s to forty-two by 1980; and when the United States military base on Baltra accommodated regular commercial airlines, visitor number quickly grew to unsustainable proportions as crowding on trails and the monitoring of visitor movement became inefficient with the lack of qualified guides.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitutes of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried to examine impact of transportation in the tourism industry. Imo state forms the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of eighty (80) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which only seventy-seven (77) were returned and validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 77 was validated for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain impact of transportation in the tourism industry. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of impact of transportation in the tourism industry
Summary
This study was on impact of transportation in the tourism industry. Three objectives were raised which included: To assess the current system of road transport used by tourists in Owerri Municipal, to assess the impact of transportation on tourism in Imo state and to examine coping strategies that are used by tourists to deal with challenging road transport system in Imo state. A total of 77 responses were received and validated from the enrolled participants where all respondents were drawn from Imo state. Hypothesis was tested using Chi-Square statistical tool (SPSS).
Conclusion
This study identified the impacts of transportation on tourism and assessed the economic applications of transportation accessibility by using cost reduction scenarios; and the final paper examined the transportation tourism relationship without taking transportation accessibility factors into account. Generally, the empirical studies surveyed in this review show that transportation plays a very important role in the development of tourism and the economy as a whole. However, the studies only integrate transportation in a general sense by using cost fluctuation scenarios. Empirical studies on the transportation-economy relationship integrated transportation accessibility factors, but studies on transportation-tourism relationship did not incorporate these factors at all. Although limitations exist, some general conclusions can be drawn from this extensive review of the literature.
Recommendation
Accessibility factors such as travel costs, infrastructure improvements, and information provision were partially considered in some works, while the other accessibility factors were not acknowledged at all. This may be due to the difficulty of measuring and integrating these factors; however, this matter should be addressed in future work.
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