ABSTRACT

A lot of Cities around the world are known by different resources they possess. Some places possess natural and environmental resources while other places create their own (anthropologically induced) resources. Human activities on the environment have often altered and changed the natural environment resulting in the creation of an environment that is a representation of people’s belief, customs, value, and culture in general.  Benin City is one of such places where a lot of historical landmarks exist. Hence this study is focused on how well these cultural landmarks (heritage) have been preserved and harnessed into tourism. The study thus examined the environmental attitude and knowledge of residents of cultural tourism resources.

The primary data used for the study were questionnaires, oral interviews and personal field observation. A total of 162 returned questionnaires were administered following a Stratified random sampling technique which was employed to select neighbourhoods. The questionnaires were analysed with the use of descriptive statistics to show residents’ knowledge and attitude towards cultural tourism resources with the aid of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.

Four quarters in Benin City were included in the study. These quarters were: Ihogbe/Isekhere/Oreoghene/Ice Road quarters, Ogbelaka/Nekpenekpen quarters, New Benin quarters and Ikpema/Eguadase/Igbesanwan/Igun quarters. The result show that the residents were highly informed about the cultural heritage in the study area but their attitude toward cultural heritage and tourism in general was poor and the people were not actively involved in tourist activities. This is because tourism in Benin City is still very low amidst a wide range of cultural heritage that Benin City possesses.