Empowering family owned tourism business in Obudu Mountain Resort

Abstract

Family owned tourism business development and sustainability has tremendous contribution to family life, community viability, destination development and industry competitiveness. They are nowadays arguably effective vehicles for the economic transformation and revitalization of rural communities. With their copious benefits, very little academic attention has been given to the phenomenon as a promising approach for rural communities’ empowerment in the context of developing countries. The existing approaches to rural communities’ empowerment such as Community Based Tourism (CBT), Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) and Community Benefit Tourism Initiatives (CBTIs) are laudable initiatives but, they have limitations in terms of understanding the family system and their ability to provide wide spread empowerment for all strata of rural communities. In order to explore this contemporary phenomenon, Obudu mountain resort whose host communities still live in poverty was chosen. It is currently relatively the most organized tourists destination in Nigeria with the existence of active family owned tourism businesses. Thus, factors affecting the development and sustainability of micro and small tourism businesses were examined. Using a qualitative case study research strategy, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 members of 14 family owned tourism businesses and 10 management staff members of the government and private agencies. The collected data was analysed thematically. The study found inadequacy of disposable capital and extreme seasonality as the main factors affecting the development and sustainability of family owned tourism businesses in the mountain destination. While the low capital base impedes industry specific training and effective marketing, extreme seasonality impact severely on the entire business and family system as the owners depend solely on the businesses for survival. Despite the effects of seasonality, the ability of the operators to remain in business all year round, adopting varying strategies indicates that the “familiness” of family owned tourism business has the potential of reducing seasonality effects in rural areas. As a way of promoting the development and sustainability of family owned tourism business in Obudu mountain resort, for rural poverty alleviation and communities’ well-being sustainability, a multi-stakeholder framework was designed to guide the government, private organizations and the existing and prospective tourism entrepreneurs.