Abstract:
Tourism serves as a potent antidote to work-related stress, motivating people to spend on attractive tour packages. Tourism-related trips provide a therapeutic escape that rejuvenates, refreshes, and energises the working class, mitigating burnout and fostering holistic well-being. Previous studies on tourism demand focused on general workforce, students and other demographics, with scant attention to exploring the specific tourism demand and expenditure patterns among university workers, particularly in southwestern Nigeria. This study was aimed at assessing the tourism demand and expenditure patterns of university workers in Osun and Oyo States, Nigeria. Hence,it examined the frequency of tourism types, types of tourism demand, expenditure, factors that influence tourism demand andpull factors for tourism expenditures among university workers in Osun and Oyo States, Nigeria.
Akdere Mesut’s Social Capital Theory was adopted, while the descriptive survey design was utilised. Osun and Oyo States were purposively selected based on year of establishment and high demand for these universities in southwestern Nigeria. Three universities were selected from each state: Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU - federal); Osun State University (UNIOSUN - state); and Adeleke University (AU - private) in Osun State; University of Ibadan (UI - federal); Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH - state); and Lead City University (LCU - private) in Oyo State. The disproportionate-to-size sampling method was used to select 520 respondents to whom the questionnaire was administered. An estimated population of 100 respondents was selected from institutions with staff strength exceeding 1000 (OAU, UI, LAUTECH, and UNIOSUN) and 60 respondents from institutions with less than 1000 staff strength (AU and LCU). Logistic regression, Likelihood Ratio (lr), Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) and Odds Ratio (OR) were used to analyse the data at p< 0.05 level of significance.
The respondents’ ages ranged from 24 - 47years, majority (99%) had formal education, and there were more males (57.1 %) than females. University workers travel frequently for family visits with an incidence rate ratio (IRR = 1.19) and cultural festivals (IRR = 1.1). The types of tourism demand among university workers were family tourism (98.8%) with a likelihood ratio (lr) = 11.9, religious tourism (97.6%), lr = 17.9 and educational tourism (92.5%) with lr = 12.1. Private university workers spent the highest mean expenditure of N70,000.00±42,426.41, followed by federal university workers N40,952.38±29,095.49 and state university workers N39,194.03±27,627.11. The factors that determined tourism demand were gender (β=-1.4) at 95% confidence interval (CI) [-2.3, 0.4] with an odds ratio of 0.3 and university ownership type (private university) (β=1.1) at 95% CI [-0.1,2.2] with an odds ratio 2.9. The pull factors for spending on tourism were accommodation (29.3%), shopping (20.89%), transportation (19.1%), souvenirs (18.2%) and feeding (12.5%).
Private university workers have high tourism demand and expenditure patterns than their counterparts at federal and state universities in Osun and Oyo states, Nigeria. Institutions should offer flexible leave policies, as well as create awareness campaigns highlighting the benefits of leisure and tourism for well-being and productivity among university workers in Osun and Oyo states, Nigeria.
