Influence of Urban Recreational Facilities Quality on Domestic Urban Tourists Patronage of Parks in Abuja City, Nigeria

Abstract

Quality of facilities in urban parks are essential to tourism development in cities. Ironically, the state of facilities in urban parks are often not accorded adequate academic attention in some developing countries including Nigeria. Thus, this paper examines the effect of parks facilities quality on patronage of urban tourists in Abuja. Four parks namely: Millennium Park, Magic Land, Jabi Lake Park, and Tobix Garden were chosen for this study. 500 questionnaires were administered to domestic tourists who were conveniently selected in the parks and 320 questionnaires were filled and returned. Firstly, frequency of visit was determined, then the quality of facilities was measured, and followed by the effect of facilities quality on tourists’ patronage using descriptive analysis and chi-square analysis in SPSS version 20. The finding of this study revealed that majority of tourists visit the parks once in a week. While majority of the tourists rated the facilities in the parks to be of high quality, in good condition, only the toilets were rated negatively low. Furthermore, the findings of the study indicate that only walkways and access roads significantly and positively influence patronage of parks, while poorly maintained toilets significantly and negatively influence patronage of parks in Abuja city. The paper recommends that all facilities in parks in Abuja city should be properly and regularly maintained to enhance increased patronage.