Assessing Banks’ Credits and Tourism Sector Development in Ifedore Local Government, Ondo State, Nigeria
The development in the tourism sector has been hindered by foreign exchange volatility, virus-outbreak (Covid-19), uncontrollable inflationary trends and inability of tourism operators to access banks’ credits. To this extent, this paper assesses banks’ credits and tourism sector development in Ifedore Local Government, Ondo State, Nigeria. The study adopts primary data that is collected via structured questionnaire. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 50 respondents which include; credit officers, head, credit department, operation managers (employees) of banks operating within the area and tourists that have visited any of these attraction centers in the local government. The collected data is analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics like tables, charts and percentages while inferential statistical method; Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and one sample t-test were used to test the formulated hypotheses. The result reveals that credits are accessed by the sector at a very low trend. The paper recommends that banks should charge moderate interest rates on credits provided to investors towards the development and sustainability of tourism sector. Keywords: Tourism sector development, Bank Credits, Banking industry, Ifedore Local Government.