An Assessment of Tourism Benefits to the Becheeve People of the Obudu Mountain Resort, Cross River State, Nigeria.

This study examined the benefits of the tourism industry to Becheeve people of Obudu Mountain Resort in Cross River state, Nigeria. Data for the study were collected through questionnaire survey, interviews, field inventory and participatory rural appraisal methods. The data generated were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, percentages, averages, graphs, charts, frequencies and maps. An inferential statistics (Students t-test) was adopted to test the hypothesis of the study. The result of the analysis revealed that there is no significant difference in employment of indigenes and non-indigenes in the resort hotels (P>0.05, df=11, t=0.27). It is observed that, despite the high rate of tourism activities in the study area, the people are yet to enjoy the full benefits of tourism in terms of sustainable development and an adequate improvement in their standard of living. Based on these findings, it is recommended that adequate steps and measures be adopted to improve the standard of living of the people through the provision of training, capacity building, credit facilities, more tourism servicing establishments and provision of basic social amenities in the adjoining villages of the tourism business centre (TBC)