EVALUATION OF IKOGOSI WARM SPRING

(A CASE STUDY OF A POTENTIAL GEOTOURIST SITE IN EKITI STATE, SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA.)

By

Ibraheem Kukoyi

Presented To

Department of Tourism and Events Management

Government’s objectives for the establishment of Ikogosi Warm Spring as a tourist attraction was investigated vis-à-vis its current status, operation and contribution to adjourning community in an evaluative study. Various methods of sampling technique were employed to select sample for this study. First, purposive sampling method was used to select 100 residents of the Ikogosi community who are 18 years and above. Secondly, accidental and availability sampling methods was also used to select 100 tourists among the tourist that patronize Ikogosi Warm Spring. Thirdly, random sampling method was then employed to select 25 respondents each from the staff of Ekiti Sate Tourism Board, Ekiti State Board of Internal Revenue, Ekiti State Ministry of Finance and Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort Limited. This same method was used to select 100 respondents from other tourism stake holders (comprising of Hoteliers, Tour Operators, Travel Agents, Restaurants and Car Hire Services Operators etc) within Ekiti State. In all a total of 400 respondents were selected. The findings of this study shows that the operation of Ikogosi Warm Spring is still in line with the goals and objectives with which it was established as a tourist attraction. This is evident in the findings of this study as indicated that the attraction contributes to promotion of recreation and tourism and improvement of standard of living in the community and consequently in the state at large, providing jobs for the people and income for the government. Even though, it is evident that there are challenges facing the local people of IkogosiEkiti where the attraction is located, it should also be noted that most of the population still believe that the gains of these attractions far outweighs the losses. The study concludes that the emergence of Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort Limited provided enormous social and economic benefits to the immediate local community in terms of employment, infrastructure, and income generation hence, both public and private investors should invest more capital in Tourism.  
KEYWORDS: Evaluation, Ikogosi Warm Spring, Geotourist Site  

Background of the Study Tourism promotion and development being one of the eight point agenda of the current Governor of Ekiti State (Dr. Kayode Fayemi) has given majority of the tourism potentials in the state the governments’ attention. Out of the twenty-one tourism potentials listed for development and promotion in Ekiti State (which includes: Ikogosi Warm Spring and Resort, Arinta Water Falls, Kosegbe Stone, Orole Hill, Olosunta Hills, Fajuyi Memorial Park, Erin Ayonigba River, Efon Alaaye Hills, Okemesi Hills, Olota, Ajo, Age, Ayoba, Uta Epe Hills, Ooni River, Osun River, Egbigbu Lake, Esa Cave, Oroke Ewo War Site and Ero Dam); the Ikogosi Warm Spring seems to standout because of the uniqueness of its features as compared to any other of such worldwide. The features of the other twenty tourism potential in Ekiti State can also be found in some other states within Nigeria and abroad. In the case of the Ikogosi warm Spring, it is not just the warm spring, rather its uniqueness lies in the fact that there is also a cold spring flowing side by side the warm spring and both the warm and the cold springs meeting at a point and then continue to flow onward together with another mysterious behavior whereby each spring retaining its thermal identity (ekititourism.com, 2012). This uniqueness also makes it the first of such occurrence in the world. This uniqueness accounts for the potentials of the Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort to be a destination of choice for tourist from far and near. More so, amongst all the aforementioned tourist attractions in Ekiti State, the Ikogosi Warm and Cold Spring which is geotouristic in nature seems to have been the most favourable in terms of governments’ attention in the area of investment for development and promotion of tourism in Ekiti State most especially during this present administration of Governor Kayode Fayemi. 

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 
It is not every abiotic natural resource that can be mined, some needed to be preserved in their natural state in order to ensure retention of their naturalness. The environment of most of such -