Influence of Festivals and Recreational Facilities on Tourism Development in Calabar Municipality of Cross River State.

Abstract

This study examined the influence of festivals and recreational facilities on tourism development in Calabar Municipality of Cross River State. This Ex-Post Facto research involved two hundred respondents consisting of tourism operators, tour guides and tourism research officers selected through stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire constructed by the researchers was used for data collection while Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistical analysis was used for data analysis. The research findings revealed that there is a significant influence of festivals and recreational facilities on tourism development in Calabar Municipality.  Based on these findings, it was recommended that cultural and Christmas festivals should be expanded to cover every local government in the state in order to expose the rich tourism potentials of the state as well as promote tourism development across the state. It was further recommended that recreational facilities should be fully developed in Calabar Municipality and other parts of the state as a means of attracting visitors both locally and internationally to such facilities, in order to promote tourism development.