Contributions of Gobarau Minaret and Katsina City Wall to Tourism Development in Katsina, Katsina State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study dwells on the contributions of Gobarau Minaret and Katsina City Wall on tourism development with specific emphasis on ascertaining the benefits of the monuments to Katsina community as well as the challenges associated with the development of the monuments for tourism development. Tourists, custodians of the monuments, Katsina State Tourism Board, and residents constituted the study population. Purposive, simple, random, and accidental sampling techniques were utilized. Questionnaires were administered for data collection and simple percentage method was used in analyzing the data.  The research findings revealed the contributions of the monuments as they are symbols of the cultural values of Katsina and therefore reminiscence to their past way of life, they help in promoting the image of the Katsina Community, they add to the numbers of attractions and thereby enhance patronage, etc.  More so, the benefits of the monuments in Katsina Community were deduced to include among others, help in creating more recognition to the community, they serve as an avenue for social cohesion, they facilitate the infrastructural development of the community and the challenges facing the development of the monuments were identified. “The symbols of cultural values and reminiscence to their past way of life” was the major contribution of the historical monuments to the development of tourism in Katsina Community. “They help in creating more recognition to the community”, “they add to the number of attractions in the community” etc. were other contributions acknowledged. Creating more recognition for the community is the major socioeconomic benefit of the monuments. Other benefits acknowledged included: an avenue for social cohesion, facilitate infrastructural development; serve as a source of revenue to the community, etc and the major challenge facing the preservation of the monuments was the absence of qualified tour guides for educating tourists/visitors.  Other challenges involve ineffective/poor promotional measures, poor community attitude, and lack of awareness creation, poor conservation of the monuments, etc and finally, recommendations were made on how to develop and sustain the monuments.