Abstract:

One of the persistent goals for any country is finding the means through which sustainable economic development can be achieved. In Nigeria, this need is most important considering the rampant levels of poverty and under- development. All over the world, there is a growing trend in the contribution of tourism to GDP, export and employment. However, despite the abundance of tourist sites and destinations in Nigeria, evidence suggest that the country has not fully realized the benefits that the tourism sector has to offer. A lot of reasons have been cited for this ranging from the under- development of the tourism sector, insecurity, poor infrastructure, ineffectual government policies, inadequate private participation to inadequate promotion of the sector. Nevertheless, the experiences of other countries including African ones such as Kenya, Gambia and South Africa have proven that tourism can promote economic development, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. This study examines the ways through which tourism can be used as a key for sustainable economic development and concludes that this goal can only be realized if the aforementioned constraints are removed