Metilelu, O. O.

Department of Hospitality Management Technology, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria
Corresponding Author E-mail: ometilelu@gmail.com

Abstract

The need for new experience and search for sun, sand and sea activities is increasing globally; this suggests the increasing human activities around the coastal areas and the need for proper planning. This research therefore defined the pattern of impact of tourism development on the vegetation cover of the study area on a temporal scale, and detected the constraints to coastal tourism development in the study areas (Badagry). Three times series (1999, 2009, and 2019) of Landsat imagery with a spatial resolution of 10 meters were acquired. The satellite datasets are pre-processed and subjected to supervised image classification, and field survey to identify the prevailing land use pattern/land cover classes and the collected training samples for the image classification were carried out using ArcGIS software (ARGIS10.4). Qualitative and quantitative methods including interview of key leaders and administration of question were employed respectively. The correlation analysis was used to show the strength of the relationship between land use pattern and vegetation cover using SPSS 23.0. Analysis of variance was used to test whether there is difference in the identified constraints among the three locations studied, such as long distance to the bus stop, long distance to the hotel, etc. The results of this research show that there is a significant correlation between tourism development and vegetation cover of the environment. In Badagry vegetation decreases, water body decreases just slightly, but built-up area increases significantly. Although, the effect may be negative on the biodiversity, but it is very positive on socio-economic dynamics of the local community. Also, the study identified the major constraints to coastal tourism development in Badagry coastal area.

Keywords:

Tourism Development, Ecological Changes, Coastal Areas, Constraints, Vegetation Cover