Empowering local communities through family business in tourism in Nigeria: a multi-stakeholder model

Abstract

Micro and Small family owned tourism businesses are arguably reliable vehicles for the economic transformation and the improvement in the livelihood of rural dwellers. With the numerous benefits associated with their development, they have been given less consideration as a promising way of alleviating poverty in rural peripheral tourism destinations in developing countries and Nigeria in particular. In order to investigate the phenomenon, semi structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 38 members of the existing micro family owned tourism businesses in Obudu mountain resort, 10 staffs of government and private agencies and a focus group with local communities’ inhabitants. The study finds inadequacy of disposable capital and extreme seasonality as the main factors affecting the growth 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 experienced impact severely on the entire business and family system as the owners depend solely on the businesses for survival. As a way of promoting the development of family owned tourism businesses in developing countries for rural poverty alleviation and communities’ well-being sustainability, a multi-stakeholder model was developed to guide the existing and prospective tourism entrepreneurs, the government and private organizations.