Impact of crime on sustainable tourism in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The rehabilitation, development of tourism potentials and the recent introduction of the biggest carnival event in Cross River State has constituted a great thread to residents and tourists who have interest to visit Cross River State and Calabar in particular as a tourism destination. Today, the carnival   event in Cross River State has turned the State Capital Calabar into a crime prone environment which is the major concern of this research to critically assess the impact of   crime rate on sustainable tourism. Eight major streets were used to investigate crime rate and within the eight sampled streets, three major resorts were selected in three major streets .Data on crime rate in the eight streets and in the three resorts environment were obtained from police crime records .More so, two hundred copies of questionnaire were distributed each to the two local government area. Findings show that December recorded the highest crime rate against tourists and residents in the areas. Besides, it was noticed that Tinapa Resort environment recorded the highest number of crime against tourists which show that residents in the Tinapa area are more vulnerable and victimise  by perpetuators of  crime in the area

Key Words: Destination, Crime Destination, Resort, Tourism,