ABSTRACT

 This work investigated the involvement of the host community in Oguta Lake. The objectives of the identified the various attractions in the study area, examined the areas the host were involved in the management of the tourism destination, ascertained the level of their involvement in the management of the tourism destination, determined the influence of host community involvement to their well-being and suggested possible ways of improving their involvement for the sustainability of both the host communities and the tourism destination. This study adopted a survey design with the use of structured questionnaires. The sample consisted of four hundred (400) respondents from the host community of Oguta Lake. The analytical tools used were mean and standard deviation and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was derive from the regression analysis. This was used in testing the hypothesis. The findings of the research showed that respondents perceived the host involvement in management of the tourism destination as positive because the mean responses of the involvement of the host community are greater than 3.0. However, the negative responses to involvement variables such as planning, decision making and policy making were not seen as a beneficial involvement of tourism on the host communities as the mean responses were less than 3.0. From the findings it was recommend that the tourism stakeholders should create awareness programs on the impacts of tourism especially the involvement of host community in tourism destination, Nigeria as a country that is rich in natural resources more destinations that would attract tourists should be harnessed as an alternative source of revenue to boost the Nation's economy.