The Role of Mass Media in Tourism Development in Abia State

This research work was aimed at establishing the role of mass media on tourism development in Abia State. The objective of the study was to identify the tourism destinations in Abia State, to determine the medium/ media used in advertising the identified tourism destination in the study area, to find out the impact of advertisement on the level of patronage to selected tourist site in Abia State, and to identify ways of improving visitation to the destinations. A structured questionnaire was used to gather the relevant data. Percentages and frequencies were used to analyze the collected data. Findings from the study revealed that National War Museum at Umuahia was the most visited tourism destination in Abia State with 56.8% of all the interviewed tourists having visited it. Wonder tree in Amakama was the second most visited destination. It is recommended that more funds for marketing tourist attractions in Abia State be availed. In addition, there is need to develop a professional human resource base in order to raise service delivery to globally acceptable standards in Abia State. Keywords: Abia State; Nigeria; Mass Media; Tourism Development; Attractions