Olumirin Waterfall Tourist Centre and Socio-cultural Transformation of Erin-ijesa Rural Community in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Olumirin waterfall tourism is a recognized location in Nigeria and enlisted one of the natural tourisms which attracts both local and foreign visitors. In spite the fact that Olumirin waterfall is one of the tourist centres in the country, there is no visible social activities that can transform the rural community. It is in the light of this gap. that this study seeks to assess the benefits that would be attracted to the host community, if the waterfall is turned to a resource. This study therefore, seeks to assess the benefits of Erin-Ijesa waterfall as a natural tourist centre in the host community as well agent of socio-cultural change. This study adopted survey cross sectional research design. The survey was descriptive in nature and aimed at capturing primary data. The sample size for this study consisted of 385 respondents. Structured questionnaire and in-depth interview guide were utilized to elicit both quantitative and qualitative data. Data collected were analyzed using percentages and inferential statistics were also used to test the hypotheses. All the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The chi square results however revealed that there was a significant relationship between years of residence and the impact of tourism on host community [r(391)= 0.162, p < 0.05]. This was such that the higher the years of residence in the community, the more the people tends to perceive tourism as having positive impact on the community. This negated the formulated hypothesis 1 and it was rejected. Also, the respondents affirmed that the presence of Olumirin waterfall has contributed to the acknowledgement of the cultural practice in the community with X 2 value of 139.048, df of 4 and a p value that was less than .05, the variances in the frequency distributions were significant. This implied that Olumirin waterfall has created higher values for the cultural features in Erin-Ijesa community. This negated the formulated hypothesis 2 and it was rejected. The study concluded that Olumirin waterfall tourism initiatives contributed significantly to social life of the local community. However, to sustain the contributions of this tourism initiatives to Erin-Ijesa rural community therefore, it was recommended that, there is need for State government and private individual to invest more on Olumirin waterfall so as to make it attractive to tourists and this will influence the social life of the community.