Residents’ Awareness and Patronage of Tourism Attractions in Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract: The study analyzed residents’ awareness and patronage of tourism attractions in Calabar. Data for the study were obtained with a structured questionnaire, which was administered to 384 sampled respondents using the systematic sampling technique. The result of the regression analysis (r = 0.893, r² = 0.797, p = 0.00, α = 0.05) shows that the relationship between awareness and patronage was significant at the 5% level of confidence. Therefore, the level of patronage of the existing tourism attractions in Calabar depends meaningfully on the level of awareness. Calabar Carnival had the highest proportion (98.6%) of awareness (370) to patronage (365), while Brickfield Prison Wall recorded the lowest proportion (43.6%) of awareness (225) to patronage (98). The study also revealed that the major medium of residents’ awareness of the tourism attractions was by friends and families, which accounted for 36%. Furthermore, the major constraints militating against residents’ patronage of the tourism attractions were poor publicity of tourism attractions, insecurity, and poor residents’ purchasing power amongst others. The authors recommend that adequate publicity of the existing tourism attractions should be conducted using various channels to increase patronage. Also, all identified constraints militating against residents’ patronage of the existing tourism attractions should be addressed adequately to put tourism development in Calabar on a sustainable path.