African Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Predictors of future travel intentions to Lagos megacity: Exploring the crime-risk perceptions

Adewumi I Badiora — Mon, 30 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The issue of crime risk associated with travel has been receiving increased attention, yet this has scarcely been studied in African contexts. Besides, how travel intention is influenced by the interactions of perceived crime risk and socio-economic characteristics has scarcely been investigated. This study examines whether perceived crime-risk factors and socio-economic characteristics help to explain future travel intentions to megacities using Lagos, Nigeria as a case study. Self-administered questionnaires were used to gather information from a sample of travellers who arrived in Lagos in 2019. Frequency counts, percentages, mean and Ordinary Least Squares Regression (OLS) were used to analyse and interpret the data. The findings show that respondents were not certain about their safety in Lagos. Likewise, they were uncertain about their future travel to the city. Though partially mediated by travellers’ socio-economic characteristics, the findings show that perceived crime risk significantly predicts future travel intentions. Implications of these findings to travel and security management are discussed.

Examining the Determinants of Location Attributes and their Effect on Hotel Pricing in the Period of the Covid-19 Pandemic in an Emerging Market

williams appau, Samson Akanvose Aziabah, Elvis Attakora-Amaniampong — Mon, 30 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The emergence of COVID-19 and the consequent travel restrictions have led to a decrease in the patronage of hotel services in nearly all economies in the world. In this circumstance, location attributes have become even more important in hotel pricing and investment decision-making. It is even more interesting to see how this plays out in emerging economies such as Ghana. The study assesses the effect of location attributes on hotel pricing during the COVID-19 pandemic period in Tamale. A sequential mixed research design including Mixed Spatial Hedonic Price Approach, Exploratory Factor Analysis and key informant interviews was employed. A sample of 815 tourists and 163 hotels was used. Hotel class, road accessibility, age of building, and hotel rate are the key determinants of hotel pricing. Among these, the hotel class showed more significance in influencing pricing decisions in the COVID-19 period. The models show that the hotel class with positive coefficients are located outside the city centre of Tamale. This has resulted in increased Yield To Maturity because the hotels located outside the city centre received more clients, with grade one hotels showing a huge net income and good post-COVID-19 investment drive. The results show that potential hotel investors should consider hotel class as a major entry decision factor during and after periods of the pandemic.

Landowners’ Perceptions and Involvement in the Management of Kyabobo National Park, Ghana

DICKSON MORTSON, George Yao Kafu — Mon, 30 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines the perceptions of landowners of fringe communities of the Kyabobo National Park (KNP) about their involvement in the creation and management of the KNP. Four KNP-fringe communities namely: Shiare, Odomi, Gekorong, and Keri which are less than a kilometre from the boundary of the park were selected for the study. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to establish the relationship between landowners’ perceptions and their involvement in the management of the park. A systematic sampling method was used to select 212 landowners for interviews using a structured interview schedule. The study found that some landowners in the KNP-fringe communities were employed at various levels in the management of the park but were not managing partners of the park. Landowners also benefited from selling handicrafts to park visitors. The physical infrastructures in the communities have remained poor. It is recommended that landowners in park-fringe communities are given the opportunity to become managing partners of the park to guarantee the successful operation of the park. Government should also provide modern physical infrastructure in the KNP-fringe communities as was promised prior to the establishment of the park.

Tourism Certification for Promoting Tourism Sustainability in the Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Vitalis Basera, Cleopas Njerekai, Farai Utete — Mon, 30 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines and ranks sustainable tourism certification concerns raised by managers of the pilot certified facilities in Zimbabwe. In the broader context, these concerns could be the reasons for the low uptake of these schemes in the country and on the continent. An email questionnaire with a three-item Likert scale and follow-up telephone interviews with 13 pilot test eco-certified facilities in the country were undertaken to collect the data. The results were thematically analysed. A ranked analysis of the concerns revealed a low uptake level of the scheme and the exclusion of guests in the certification process was the most important concern. Thirteen concerns were raised to corroborate previously raised concerns. It is recommended that there should be concerted efforts towards addressing the issue of low adoption levels of this tool both at the country and continental levels.

Effects of rural tourism development on poverty alleviation: a grounded theory

Faithfull Gonzo — Mon, 30 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Tourism has been accredited as a significant sector by the Namibian government because it is one of the highest income earners and ranks third after mining and agriculture. This research paper explores the key determinants of poverty in the Northern region of Namibia (Kunene and Zambezi) and the effects of rural tourism development on poverty alleviation. The research adopted grounded theory and phenomenological approaches and data were collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with various tourism stakeholders in the two regions. The research findings reveal the importance of all stakeholders in identifying the causes of poverty in each region/constituency before implementing poverty alleviation strategies. This study, therefore, concludes that providing the same tourism strategies to different geographical locations does not work, because some communities are extremely deprived. This research, therefore, recommends a flexible framework which takes a pragmatic approach to move away from the “one size fits all” approach.