Tourism festivals and Youth Development in Nigeria: The Emerging Social Dynamics of Calabar Carnival, Yakurr Leboku and Ogoja (Northfest) festivals in Cross River State

Abstract

Tourism festivals are strategic development initiatives to promote cultural inclusion, heritage, identity and diversity to harness economic and sociocultural endowment to generate investments, and promote business climate, generate foreign earnings with a trickle-down effect to the host community. The Cross River State tourism development initiative (Calabar Carnival, Yakurr Leboku New Yam and Ogoja Northfest) festivals), are cultural and historical activities packaged together to promote heritage and identity while promoting investment and commerce in the state. However, these tourism initiatives have not only promoted the state socioeconomically and globally, but has equally promoted illicit drug and alcohol use and abuse among the youth which results to mental disorders. It has equally promoted noise and environmental pollution, traffic congestion, human and vehicular movement restrictions and heightened criminality among the youth in terms of rape, cybercrimes and bullying, pick pocketing and robbery, kidnapping, unprotected sexual escapade, and unwanted pregnancies with some resulting to abortions etc. These ugly trend poses a great risk to tourism development and environmental sustainability, and health promotion because it affects the socioeconomic wellbeing of the youth and state. This paper takes a descriptive theoretical look at the emerging social dynamics and implications tourism (Calabar Carnival, Yakurr Leboku and Ogoja (Northfest) festivals and youth development in Nigeria. The paper recommends that state governments and stakeholders should take critical planning and monitoring models, and strategic intelligence and information surveillance using modern technology, and innovative security solutions to ensure youths involved in tourism festivals are protected from these social vices. Government and stakeholders should invest in tourism infrastructures and social amenities for sustainable tourism development. There should sustained coordination of tourism activities, sensitization and awareness creation by state government and stakeholders with the involvement of development expects, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and other care-givers to mitigate the negative consequences to protect the youth population, development and environmental sustainability.

Key words: Tourism, festival, development, youth, social dynamics