The Role of Tourism in Promoting Inclusive Growth in Nigeria

This study examines the relationship between tourism and inclusive growth in Nigeria from 1995Q1 to 2022Q4. The objective is to determine the effect of tourism on inclusive growth in Nigeria. Auto Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) modelling is utilized to estimate the linkage of tourism and inclusive growth over the period. The results show a positive and significant relationship between international tourism receipt at lag period 1 and inclusive economic growth in Nigeria, a positive and significant relationship between international tourist arrivals at levels and inclusive growth in Nigeria, a negative and insignificant relationship between exchange rate at levels and inclusive economic growth in Nigeria and no long run cointegrating is established with tourism and inclusive economic growth in Nigeria. Also, jointly all the variables in the model significantly influence inclusive growth in Nigeria. The findings suggest that tourism is influencing inclusive economic growth in Nigeria only in the short run period. The study recommends increasing investment in tourism related infrastructures, strengthening social welfare programs to ensure that benefits of tourism receipts reach marginalized population, and strengthening exchange rate to ensure higher earnings from tourism, all these measures will ensure that the benefits of tourism will go beyond short-term benefits to long- term benefits to citizens in Nigeria.