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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

TOURISM AND HOSPITALITYINDUSTRY IN NIGERIA 

 

Akwara, Azalahu Francis; Biu, Iliyasu M.; Abutu, Grace; Okwelume, Rose 
1Department of Political Science, The Federal University Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria, Email: 

aakwara@yahoo. com. (Corresponding Author). 
2 &4Department of Political Science, The Federal University Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria, 

3Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, The Federal Polytechnic Idah, Kogi State, 

Nigeria 

 
Abstract 

Tourism as an activity of movement and discovery of new places, peoples and its affiliates has 

always been with man. This inherent multifaceted activity generates enormous income among 

nations and contributes to national GDP more than certain sectors of a nation’s economy when 

it is properly harnessed, deliberately planned, positioned and repositioned over time. Most times, 

the key to the success of tourism amongst other sectors has been human resource management. 

The outcome of human resources if untapped, mismanaged and underutilized is 

counterproductive to growth and development in all ramifications. This paper, therefore, relies 

on content analyses of secondary documents to discuss the impact of human resources 

management on the development of the tourism and hospitality industry in Nigeria. The study 

finds that human resource management is essential for the successful development of any sector 

of the nation’s economy and recommends amongst other things the professionalization and 

training of personnel in the tourism industry. This will enhance the growth of the industry and 

attract international and local tourists to Nigeria; help in job creation, increase foreign exchange 

earnings and contributes to the socio-economic development of the nation. 

 

Key words: tourism; tourism destination; tourism system; motivation; human resource, 

management 

 

INTRODUCTION 

The movement and discovery of new 

places and people known in a simple 

form as tourism has become a major 

factor in the world economic 

development. Its global impact is 

enormous in multiplier terms. Despite 

the security challenges, the World 

Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) 

(2008) noted the gigantic progress in 

world’s tourism as it contributes about 

10.3% of world gross domestic product; 

with an annual turnover of about $87 

billion (US); and that the world travel 

and tourism industry supports about 234 

million jobs which is about 8.7% of total 

world employment. 

 

Despite this information, the potentials 

from the tourism sector are greater than 

can be imagined; especially in 

developing nations dependent on very 

lean sources for national income. 

Nigeria has sought to key into this 

industry in recent years through 

government and non-governmental 

participations. These stakeholders range 

 



 

 

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from the National Tourism 

Development Cooperation (NTDC), 

Federal and States Ministries of Culture, 

National Parks Commission, Nigeria 

Conservative Fund, United Nations 

Educational, Scientific and Cultural 

Organization (UNESCO) and local and 

foreign investors in the sector. 

 

The extent of having vast return on 

investment in the tourism industry at any 

given period is anchored on facilities, 

infrastructural facilities and policies 

connected with the industry and 

adequately trained manpower to manage 

the sector effectively. It is clear that 

tourism is a business of human relations. 

Therefore, availability of competent 

personnel in the tourism industry 

amongst other factors translates to 

sustained socio-economic growth and 

development. In Nigeria, this is obvious 

given that her diverse people and culture 

with its vast natural resources and sites 

form a basis to achieve multi-sectorial 

growth and development. To this end the 

human resource problems facing the 

tourism sector are examined. 

 

The attraction of people to any tourism 

destination anywhere in the world lies 

on multiple factors. These are 

infrastructures - roads, healthcare 

system, transport, hotel, restaurants, 

recreation facilities, communication, 

and financial intermediation, as the 

exchange of currencies, credit cards 

among other things; and competent 

managers who can stand proudly up to 

say “we are here; we have what will 

make you happy! please come over”. 

The prevailing public policies and the 

human resources available in the tourism 

industry are at the apex of the 

requirements. This is besides peace and 

security that crowns it all. 

 

In specific terms, Nigerian tourism 

development has gone through many 

phases. Before the arrival of the 

colonialist, we indeed had our diverse 

cultures, cultural sites, natural habitats 

from the mangrove swamps and forest in 

the Niger Delta region in the south to the 

flat savannah grassland in the north. 

Nigeria though geopolitically detached 

and not infrastructural developed, had 

tourism in practice in the pre-colonial 

and colonial era. This is displayed in the 

continuous attempt to preserve our 

objects of art, cultural heritage, forest as 

games reserve and develop new tourist 

destination as the Obudu Cattle Ranch 

and TINAPA holiday resort all in the 

Cross River State, amongst other sites 

and tourist destination locations across 

Nigeria. The scope of Nigeria’s tourism 

is as great as her land mass and size, as 

all 36 states and the federal capital 

territory, Abuja have tourist sites. The 

socio-economic benefits in the short and 

long run are determined by the extent of 

proper synergy of human and material 

resources already endowed upon 

Nigeria. 

 

Okpoko and Okpoko (2002) and 

Okpoko (2006) identified some key 

elements that affect or influences 

tourism development and human 

resources as the level of economic and 

infrastructure development in the 



 

 

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country (transportation - railways, roads, 

water navigation, and air services; 

communication and accommodation); 

the amount of capital investment by 

public and private investors in the 

sector; aggressiveness of marketing and 

sales programmes; socio-political 

stability; and the herd of qualified 

management and skilled personnel. To 

this end the problems of tourism 

development in Nigeria under study are 

summarized as the lack of investments 

in tourism projects; inadequate 

promotion and information; Lack of 

tourist destination managers (poor 

human resources management); 

negligence by the governments (federal, 

state and local); and other stakeholders; 

terrorism and insurgency; and militancy 

and kidnapping; and human resource 

management needs which forms the 

focus of this study. 

 

Statement of the Problem 

Human resource is essential for the 

success of any given business venture. 

When the right caliber of personnel is 

not available in any business venture, 

that business falters, fails and dies, and 

that particular sector of the economy 

remains underdeveloped. This study 

looks at the manpower needs of the 

tourism and hospitality industry in 

Nigeria and how this has affected the 

development of the sector. In doing this, 

the following problems were raised and 

addressed: what are the manpower needs 

of the tourism and hospitality industry in 

Nigeria? Are these manpower needs 

available in the country? What are the 

impacts of the absence of the right 

caliber of personnel on the development 

of the sector? And what should be done 

to remedy the situation so that the sector 

can contribute to the socio-economic 

development of the country? 

 

Theoretical Framework 

Tourism as an academic field of study is 

interdisciplinary in nature, and it derives 

some of its theories from other 

disciplines. Theories of economic 

development, and a good number of 

theories have been advanced to explain 

the process of economic development in 

society, especially the balanced and 

unbalanced growth approaches 

(Nafziger, 1997), and retention of a 

workforce within any given sector of the 

economy through juicy and equitable 

reward system and satisfaction of 

expectations (Vroom, 1964). 

 

The first theory is examined and 

explained within the features of tourism 

development as it borders on the basis of 

general economic development. The 

balanced and unbalanced growth 

approaches scrutinize whether 

development occurs across all sectors of 

the economy or whether there is 

development in a few leading sectors 

that will act as a springboard for the 

development across the economy as a 

whole. To this end, the balance growth 

theory advocates that it is not possible to 

overcome the natural forces in a stagnant 

economy by investing in and developing 

only a few export sectors. This is the 

situation with Nigeria, which has 

operated as a mono-economy since 

independence in 1960. 



 

 

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Cooper et al. (2008) who discussed these 

theories argued that unbalanced growth 

at where investment occurs in just a few 

leading sectors is far more achievable 

with resources of developing countries 

and that these leading sectors will drag 

the other sectors up eventually. This is 

evident as the recent interest and 

investment across the South-South State 

of Cross River with the development of 

the TINAPA Holiday Resort in Calabar, 

and the Obudu Cattle Ranch Reserve in 

Obudu; and developments in other geo-

political zones in the country. The 

second theory used in this study which is 

within the human resource management 

context is the expectancy theory. This is 

predicated on the idea that people are 

influenced by the expected result of their 

action. Vroom (1964) anchors this on 

motivation as a function of performance. 

Though expectancy theory cannot be 

linked to a single scholar, Vroom’s 

(1964) expectancy theory aimed 

specifically at work motivation. His 

model is based on three key variables: 

valence, instrumentality and 

expectancy. Based on this theory, 

managers should give attention to a 

number of factors including the 

following: 

 

(1) Use rewards appropriate in terms 

of individual’s performance. 

High incomes with high fringe 

benefits that attract the required 

workforce should be used. 

(2) Attempt should be made to 

establish a clear relationship 

between efforts and benefits, 

especially to make workers 

perceive a clear relationship 

between their performances and 

rewards. 

(3) Establish clear procedures for 

the evaluation of individual 

levels of performance. 

(4) Pay attention to intervening 

variables such as amities and 

traits, role perception, 

organization procedures and 

support facilities. 

 

Based on the above, the tourism sector 

in Nigeria as any other around the world 

is sustained by the caliber of human 

resources available in them at all levels 

and their proper management. Tacitly, 

the trends of the human relations 

movement of the early 20th century, 

researcher such as Abraham Maslow, 

Elton Mayo, Mary Parker Follet, and 

David McClelland formed the basis for 

studies and created business values 

through the strategic management of the 

workforce. This is evident due to 

globalization trends and issues of 

diversification of the economies of the 

developing countries of the world. 

 

Conceptual Clarification 

Tourism 

Scholars, researchers and professionals 

in the field of tourism and beyond have 

accepted that, the concept “tourism” is 

conceptually weak and ambiguous. 

Though Cooper et al (2008) have argued 

that tourism lacks the basic rigors and 

focus common in the academic field of 

study, yet it can be classified as an 

interdisciplinary discipline and therefore 

conceptually diverse in explanation. 



 

 

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Tourism is coined from the word ‘tour’ 

which connotes movement. This could 

be moving for different purposes, but 

acceptable tourism is a means to an end. 

In more concise form, tourism arises out 

of the movement of people to and from 

where they stay, to various places or 

destinations furthermore, there are two 

important elements in tourism - the 

journey to a destination and the stay 

(including activities) at the destination. 

The journey and stay take place outside 

the usual environment or normal places 

of residence and work; therefore, 

tourism gives rise to activities that are 

distinct from those at resident and work 

places. Indeed, most times, the 

movement to destinations is temporary 

and short in outlook, and this could be 

within (domestic) or outside 

(international) a country. Tourism in 

terms of purpose could be for leisure and 

recreation i.e. holiday, sport, cultural, 

visiting friends and relatives. It could 

also be for study, health, and business 

and professional purposes. In Nigeria, 

this word is not common but it is 

practiced inadvertently. 
 

Tourism System 

According to Cooper et al. (2008), all 

other academic disciplines view the 

activity of tourism as an application of 

their own ideas and concepts. In order to 

avoid a somersault of ideas, they 

anchored this subject matter on the 

Leiper’s model (1990). Leiper’s model 

takes into account many issues that 

border on the activity of tourist. Given 

this, the model considers a range of an 

external environment such as the 

society, its culture and norms; its politics 

and political processes; and the economy 

as the constituent elements and 

determinants of tourism. 
 

Human Resource Management 

Human resource management has been 

described in its basic form as the 

discipline that focuses on finding and 

keeping the best employees and focuses 

on employees as the foremost resource 

in any enterprise. The leading firms 

whether in the public or the private 

sector in the world are driven by great 

minds. To this end, Greer (2001) is of the 

opinion that human resource 

management aims primarily at ensuring 

that any given organization has in place, 

the people's capabilities and culture to 

support its strategic direction or 

objectives. Thus, human resource 

management is the process of getting the 

best work from each employee by 

providing the right incentives and job 

environment, all with the goal of 

meeting the objectives of the 

organization. Within this context, the 

Nigerian tourism industry aided by good 

policies and infrastructural development 

can be a money spinner for the economy, 

if and only if the industry is driven by the 

right kind of personnel in all its 

ramifications. 

 

Human Resources and Tourism 

Development in Nigeria 

Tourism in Nigeria has developed 

through various phases of our national 

history. At the governmental level, the 

development of tourist’s facilities was 

taken in a planned manner from the 



 

 

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colonial era. This was followed-up with 

the colonist laying the general ground-

work to preserve our national arts and 

cultural heritage, as well as our natural 

forest and game reserves. 
 

As noted by Archibong (2004), tourism 

in Nigeria centers largely on events due 

to the country’s ethnic diversities and 

wide geographical features which 

include rain forest, savannah, waterfalls 

and other natural attractions. These were 

all in existence before the arrival of the 

colonist in the 18th century. The tourist 

sites in Nigeria including festivals and 

cultural celebrations (such as durbar 

festivals in the north; the Oshun festival 

of Oshogbo in the west; the ofala festival 

in the east), the nation’s national parks 

located in old Oyo, Yankari; Cross 

River, Kamuku and Kainji. And new 

ones at Gumti-Ghasaka, Mambilla 

Plateau Aso rock in Suleja, Kwa water 

falls in Cross River, and museums 

amongst many- natural attractions, were 

preserved and developed for tourism 

purposes. The industry by the estimates 

of the World Travel and Tourism 

Council (WTTC) (2007) put Nigeria’s 

revenue related to tourism and travel at 

over $10 billion (US) dollars; and is 

approximately 6% of the nation’s GDP 

per annum. The potentials are enormous 

in the terms of diversification of the 

Nigerian economy, but the tourism 

industry suffers from the country’s 

epileptic power supply and archaic 

railways, poor roads and costly air travel 

and very recently terrorism. The human 

resources management aspect within the 

context of this study requires that we 

identify the manpower needs that can 

support the industry, and that can give to 

the stakeholders within the sector and to 

the government the highest returns on 

investments. Besides the tourism sites 

which have tourism guides and other 

operators who make up the workforce, 

the accommodation/restaurants and 

transportation sectors are identified as 

vital to the industry. 
 

As Wanhill (2003) observed, there are 

local and global forces representing 

historical, political, economic, socio-

cultural and technological factors that 

influence the tourism sector, and the 

interplay of these forces (environmental 

determinants) is the main cause of the 

sector’s heterogeneity. Accommodation 

for instance covers hotels, guest houses, 

farmhouse accommodation, bed and 

breakfast establishments and 

composites; the human resources 

available needs improvements in their 

productivity through the use of 

technology, and training for efficient 

and management effectiveness. Most of 

the accommodation facilities (70%) are 

privately owned since after the strong 

push by the winds of privatization in the 

late 1990s; hence there is the challenge 

of human resources with the 

professional aura within the sector. 
 

The transport sector in Nigeria is highly 

lopsided with most movement by roads, 

few by air, sea and rail. The use of the 

railway system which is solely owned by 

government has declined since the late 

1980s and its deliberate usage in the 

tourism industry very minimal. The 



 

 

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personnel involved in the transportation 

and accommodation sectors and the 

other support services of the tourism 

industry are most times in the private 

sector. The peculiarities of those 

involved are that they are highly 

underemployed in terms of wages, 

placement and conditions of service; 

there is a wide gap between workers who 

are undereducated and unprepared for 

jobs in the contemporary business 

environment and few thoroughly bred 

professionals in the hospitality and 

tourism industry; the absence of policy 

friendly conditions of services i.e. 

hiring, safety, unionization, 

compensation, health, pension 

standards, etc. The commercial cities of 

Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Port 

Harcourt, Aba, amongst others in 

Nigeria, which ought to have measures 

of standardized operations as per 

personnel in the tourism and hospitality 

industry are in reality very few and 

limited by international standards hence 

the need to look at the manpower needs 

of the tourism sector in Nigeria. 

 

What are the Manpower Needs of the 

Tourism Industry in Nigeria? 

People make a business successful. 

Human resource management is the 

direction of people to achieve desired 

goals within an organization. It starts 

with matching the people within the 

workforce with their positions when 

they are employed, and motivating them 

toward a full realization of their 

potentialities and at the same time 

achieve organizational goals or 

objectives. Since the right caliber of a 

workforce is essential for the 

achievement of organizational goals, the 

first question that comes to mind is: what 

caliber of manpower is required by the 

tourism industry? Does Nigeria have 

enough of it presently, if no why? 

 

The manpower needs of a typical 

tourism and hospitality outfit will among 

other things include the following: 

graduates of tourism and hospitality 

management; bi-lingual graduates, 

bilingual secretaries and linguists; 

graduates of international relations; 

engineers (civil, electrical, mechanical, 

computer); medical personnel - doctors, 

nurses and technologists; marketers and 

business administrators; accountants; 

botanists and florists; security experts; 

geographers and environmentalists. All 

these are required at the West African 

School Certificate (WASC); Ordinary 

national Diploma (OND); Higher 

National Diploma (HND); Bachelor of 

Science (B. SC.); Bachelor of Arts 

(B.A.); Master of Science (M.Sc.); 

Master of Arts (M.A.) and at the Doctor 

of Philosophy (Ph.D.) levels. But most 

establishments in the hospitality 

industry do not have most of these 

manpower needs in their employment. 

 

While most of these manpower needs 

are available in Nigeria, there is the 

acute absence of the graduates of 

tourism and hospitality management 

across the country. This is because the 

educational institutions charged with the 

training of this manpower only produce 

or train the middle level manpower 

needs of the industry and not for the high 



 

 

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manpower needs of the sector. Only the 

polytechnics, in Nigeria, train people for 

the tourism and hospitality management 

industry in Nigeria and only very few 

polytechnics have the facilities to train 

this level of manpower need. The 

universities in the country have not 

really developed courses in tourism and 

hospitality management to train for the 

high level manpower needs of the 

industry because they have not 

recognized the potentials of tourism in 

contributing to national development. 

Even if they are to do so now, they 

would need to recruit foreign nationals 

into the departments if they are to 

produce high level manpower needs for 

the industry. Only very recently did a 

university in Nigeria - the Imo State 

University Owerri start a degree course 

in Catering and Hotel Management. 

 

Secondly, only very few universities in 

Nigeria offer courses, in History and 

Archeology, which has relevance to 

tourism. Because history and archeology 

are not quite rewarding in terms of 

employment, only very few students 

register to study history when they 

cannot get admitted into other courses of 

study in the universities. This has forced 

the history departments to change the 

name from “Department of History” to 

“Department of History and Diplomatic 

Studies Departments” in order to attract 

students into the department. Most high 

level manpower found in the tourism 

sector trained abroad, and a good 

number of them are foreign nationals. 

Because the country cannot produce the 

right caliber of staff for the industry, 

most reputable hotels and tourist sites in 

the country are owned and managed by 

foreign nationals with Nigerians as 

supporting staffs. This is not good for 

the sector. 

 

Nigeria also has very few bi-lingual 

graduates, bilingual secretaries, and 

linguists. Those available are not willing 

to take up employment in the tourism 

and hospitality industry because of the 

poor reward system in the sector. They 

would prefer jobs with some other 

private enterprises with appealing 

reward systems. So also are the other 

manpower needs of the industry - 

graduates of international relations, 

engineering, medicine, marketing, 

accountancy, botany (florists), security 

experts, geography and environmental 

sciences. When the universities come to 

realize the proper place of tourism in 

national development, they would 

develop academic disciplines to train the 

required manpower. When the required 

manpower is developed, this manpower 

will then develop the industry to be what 

it should be and to contribute to national 

development. 

 

The next problem is the reward system 

in the industry. Investors in the industry 

do not want to hire trained staffs due to 

the high reward expected by the staffs. 

So to keep down cost and maximize 

profits, investors would prefer 

employing local middle level manpower 

and use them in high level positions and 

on very low rewards. Investors would 

not want to train their staffs for their high 

level manpower needs for the fear of 



 

 

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losing such staffs to other investors after 

training. 

 

Another factor for the absence of 

qualified manpower for the industry is 

poor public perception of workers in the 

industry. These perceptions are based on 

cultural and traditional values of the 

society. Holidays and leisure are 

unknown to most Africans except during 

festivities. Any one that patronizes 

hotels and leisure parks within a local 

setting is usually seen as a societal misfit 

and a good-for-nothing. This has 

affected people in seeking employments 

in the sector until very recently, and also 

in their choice of tourism as a course of 

study. Even in the polytechnics that offer 

the course, only students with very weak 

academic backgrounds are found in the 

departments. They study the course as a 

last resort when admissions to other 

departments fail. 

 

Do we have such calibers of staff in 

abundance? 

To ensure that the sector has the required 

personnel, there is the need train those 

on the jobs already in academic 

institutions at home and abroad. There is 

also a need to establish academic 

departments in universities to train high 

level manpower for the sector and 

encourage people to study tourism and 

hospitality related courses, and to take 

up employment in the industry. This we 

know was done after the Local 

Government Reforms in Nigeria in 1976 

for the local government administrative 

sector. Then, there is a need to make 

firms in the industry to endow chairs in 

the universities and polytechnics and to 

contribute at least 2% of their annual 

profits to institutions offering the 

courses. This will further help to develop 

a course of study and the industry in the 

country. 

 

What do we do to retain the right 

caliber of manpower within the 

industry? 

To retain the people already on the job, 

there is the need to give to the 

employees’ good incentives to remain 

on the job when employed. An 

enhancement of their take home pay and 

their access to other fringe benefits 

would make the job more appealing to 

prospective applicants and help to 

change public perception of people who 

work in the industry, and encourage the 

local communities to accept the 

development of tourist sites or 

destinations within their communities. 

Certain percentages of the equity 

holding of the tourist destinations should 

be given to the staffs and the local 

communities to encourage the local 

communities to co-own the facilities and 

employees to stay on their jobs rather 

than seek for alternative or more 

rewarding employments elsewhere. And 

the operators of the tourist destinations 

should adopt viable and responsive 

social responsibilities towards the host 

communities to encourage safety of the 

destinations and to encourage their 

patronage by tourists. 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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What will be the impacts of having the 

right caliber of staff within the 

industry? 

When the right calibers of staffs are 

present at the tourist destinations, the 

destinations would attract other 

businesses into the community and help 

to develop the community into a new 

town. This would change the nature of 

the local economy. There would be 

improved and competitive services in all 

sectors of the economy within the 

localities and of course more returns on 

investments. 

 

The trickling effects would flow into all 

sectors and regions of the nation and the 

nation would develop economically. 

There would be employment and 

poverty reduction at tourist destinations 

through job creation. New towns and 

cities would grow, and old towns would 

demand urban renewal. There would be 

a growth in the national GDP because 

the economy is diversifying; more 

tourists would be attracted and more 

foreign exchange earned. Economic 

growth and development would ensure 

through infrastructural development 

(water supply, new and better road 

networks; electricity supply would be 

made available and improved; schools 

and academic institutions would develop 

around the destinations to cater for the 

educational needs of the population; 

there would be markets for local 

products; healthcare facilities would 

spring up to cater for the people and the 

tourists as more tourist destinations 

develop, and more profits would be 

made by the investors. 

Developments in infrastructural 

facilities would certainly increase 

longevity as the quality of lives would be 

improved. People would afford to live 

more comfortably, happier and satisfied 

lives. Their obituaries would now start 

with “with gratitude to God for a life 

well spent.” rather than “with heart full 

of sorrows, we announce the death of...” 

Politically, the nation would be more 

stable as there would be cultural 

exchanges through tourism. More 

cultural festivals would develop to 

attract tourists into the societies, and 

these would create the much needed 

national integration and improve the 

citizen’s sense of national identity. It 

would encourage inter-ethnic marriages; 

reduce inter- ethnic cleavages and leads 

to more cultural exchanges. This would 

create a good image for the country 

abroad and encourages international 

relations, trade and cooperation. 

 

Conclusion and Future of Tourism 

Development in Nigeria 

Some of the noticed peculiarities of the 

tourism industry discussed above, in 

conjunction with the personnel need in 

the tourism industry in Nigeria paints a 

picture of the work environment full of 

uncertainties, and high labour turn-over. 

This invariably will leave a highly de-

motivated workforce and in turn could 

lead to drop of revenue earnings in the 

sector which has the potential to 

diversify the Nigerian economy in the 

long run. The future of human resources 

management in the development of the 

Nigerian tourism industry should be 

anchored on the following: 



 

 

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(1) Revalidation of the 2006 

Tourism Development Master 

plan with the aim to incorporate 

it into Nigerian’s national 

legislation as well as the 

establishment of the Nigeria a 

tourism bank. 

(2) Establishment of professional 

training programs to transform 

the largely undereducated 

personnel in the industry to a 

formidable team. 

(3) Affiliate all training centers for 

the tourism and hospitality 

industry in the public and 

private sector to universities, 

polytechnics and monotechnics 

in Nigeria. This is aimed at 

standardizing input and output 

for best global practices. 

(4) Encourage unionization and 

professionalization of personnel 

in the sector towards better 

conditions of service. This will 

reduce the levels mediocrity 

and ameliorate high labor 

turnover in the sector. 

 

This emphasis stems from the 

understanding that tourism is a high-

touch, high-tech, high involvement 

industry where it is the ‘people’ that 

make the difference. To this end, the 

ability to witness the much expected 

diversification of the Nigerian economy 

through the tourism industry depends 

largely upon the skills, empowerment, 

training and knowledge of the human 

resources available in that particular 

sector of the Nigerian economy. 

 

 

 

References 
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Waiting to Be Tapped”. The Sun 

(online) (Retrieved 2007-06-21) 

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Planning and Development, Nsukka Afro-orbis 

Pub. Ltd. Vroom, E.V.H. (1964) Work and 

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Fyall A. and Gilbert D. Wanhill 

(2008) Tourism: Principles and 

Practice. Essex: Parson Education 

Ltd. 

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Managing Visitors Attractions: New Direction. 

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