Impact of Tourism on the Cultural status of Cross River State, Nigeria

This study focused on the impact of tourism on the cultural status of Cross River State, Nigeria. Data for the study were collected through questionnaire survey, interviews, field inventory and participatory rural appraisal methods. The participatory research appraisal shows that the variation in the number of tourists’ arrivals in some of the months was attributed to the availability of traditional events. The study also reveal that 24 percent of the respondents participated in traditional marriages and the Christmas festivals while 1 percent and 3 percent participated in traditional wrestling festivals and chieftaincy ceremonies. The study also observed that some socio-cultural values of the people (traditional marriages, traditional building pattern, family income, traditional landscape design, art and crafts) were positively affected by the tourists’ interaction with the host communities while other values (traditional belief system, traditional religious worship, native food, local drinks, traditional dress style, traditional legal system, level of promiscuity) were negatively affected by the interaction with the tourists’.