International Research Journal of Education and Technology

The study focused on eradicating youth restiveness through tourism for enhanced employment and infrastructural development in rural communities in Cross River State, Nigeria.  The study adopted a survey design and the population comprises of self-employed, gainfully employed, students, civil servants, farmers, and industrialists. The sample for the study was drawn from the population. The sample for this study was made up of 300 respondents, purposively drawn from five (5) local government areas from the eighteen (18) local government areas of the state. These local government areas selected are Obanlikwu, Obudu, Ikom, Etung, and Calabar Municipality. The main instrument of this study was a 22-item questionnaire. The instrument was designed by the researcher with the assistance of the two supervisors. The questionnaire was a 4-point Likert-type scale questionnaire tagged “Tourism Industry and Socio-economic Development Scale (TIASDS)”. The instrument was subdivided into 3 units: A, B, and C. Section “A” was developed to collect the participants’ personal information such as sex, age, educational level, occupation, and local government area of origin. Sections “B” and “C” were items on a 4-point Likert-type scale designed to measure the effect of tourism on the socio-economic development of Cross River State. Each item required the respondents to indicate the degree or frequency under “Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D), and Strongly Disagree (SD)”. Section “C” of the instrument was used to measure indices of socio-economic development, the dependent variables. The results of the Cronbach alpha reliability indices ranged from 0.58 to 0.88. Therefore, the reliability coefficient was considered high enough to validate the use of the scale in the study. According to Kerlinger and Lee (2000), a reliability coefficient of 0.70 and above is suitable for any measuring scale, it implies that the subscales in the instrument are seen to be reliable and valid to be used for the investigation under consideration. findings from the study revealed that the tourism industry significantly relates to employment creation in Cross River State. also, the tourism industry has a significant relationship between the tourism industry and infrastructural development in areas of electricity, roads, pipe-borne water, and telecommunications facilities. based on the findings, it was recommended that tourism’s potential to create employment opportunities is high, and the government should encourage the public-private sector partnership, especially in the area of the hospitality industry and other cultural entertainment.

Keywords: Youth Restiveness, Tourism, employment, and Infrastructural Development