Abstract

Tourism has developed into a global economic and social force (Rasul, Fatima & Sohail, 2016). In the South African context, it has grown to be the leading employment generator in the country (Apleni, Vallabh & Henama, 2017).

Also, existing research validates the fact that tourism is an important factor that boosts the balance of payments (Celik, Ozcan & Topcouglu Yildirim, 2013). Moreover, tourism is a significant and effective generator of foreign exchange (Ramukumba, 2016), with it currently being the leading source of foreign exchange in South Africa.

The industry is considered to be the new gold of South Africa because it presently attracts more foreign exchange than it does gold (Henama, Acha-Anyi & Sifolo, 2016). It is a broad phenomenon that touches on such macro components as socio-economic and environmental variables (Bunghez, 2016). For many destinations, tourism is the driver of development, with it being seen as a thriving economic activity (Zhuang, Yao & Li, 2019).

This study aims to evaluate the effect of the Limbe botanic garden on Tourism development in the town of Limbe. The presumption was that the creation of the botanic garden has no effect on Tourism development in the town of Limbe municipality and the creation of the botanic garden has an effect on Tourism development in the town of Limbe municipality which was both the Null and alternative hypothesis.

The methodology of this study is done by questionnaire, personal field interview. The sample size of this study was 60, and respondents were samples randomly. Questionnaires and observations were the instruments used to collect data. Data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively with the use of frequency distribution tables. This study focuses on five chapters. On which chapter one is based on the nature of the Botanic Garden in Tourism development.

Africa contents, national and down to Buea. while chapter two looks at the literature review and some conceptual framework with some authors of the study. The chapter four deals mostly with data analyses and test of hypothesis and some result were done. And the final chapter focuses on research findings, recommendations, and some conclusions.

1.1 Background of the Study

Tourism has developed into a global economic and social force (Rasul, Fatima & Sohail, 2016). In the South African context, it has grown to be the leading employment generator in the country (Apleni, Vallabh & Henama, 2017).

Also, existing research validates the fact that tourism is an important factor that boosts the balance of payments (Celik, Ozcan & Topcouglu Yildirim, 2013). Moreover, tourism is a significant and effective generator of foreign exchange (Ramukumba, 2016), with it currently being the leading source of foreign exchange in South Africa.

The industry is considered to be the new gold of South Africa because it presently attracts more foreign exchange than it does gold (Henama, Acha-Anyi & Sifolo, 2016). It is a broad phenomenon that touches on such macro components as socio-economic and environmental variables (Bunghez, 2016). For many destinations, tourism is the driver of development, with it being seen as a thriving economic activity (Zhuang, Yao & Li, 2019).

Tourism Development in Cameroon

Africa is the setting for the long dawn of human history. About a million years ago humans explore northwards out of this lovely continent called Africa. From about four million years ago ape-like creatures walked upright on two feet on this continent. Thus some two million years ago, the first creatures to be classed as part of the human species evolve in Africa. From the late 15th century, Europeans and Arabs transported enslaved west, central, and South Africans overseas in the African slave trade.

Moreover, the European colonization of Africa developed rapidly in the scramble for Africa regardless of the slave trade. Meanwhile, it was believed that Africa had up to 10.000 different states and autonomous groups with distinct languages and customs before it was colonized.

Studying Africa’s history has been challenging for the researchers because of the lack of written materials. A critical study method for finding information about African history has been the recording of oral history, historical linguistics, archaeology, and genetics. (Williams 1987, 162-174).

The tourism industry is a major sector of the economy for many African countries. Despite the fact that there are 54 countries in Africa whereas only four of these countries benefit the most from the tourism industry and these countries are Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and South Africa. Nonetheless, there is a second category of countries that also benefit in the tourism industry which are Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Kenya. (Christie, Fernandes, Messerli & Twining-Ward 2014, 74-79).

The Republic of Cameroon is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the West; to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Meanwhile, the country coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Cameroon is home to more than 200 different linguistic groups although French and English are the official languages. The country however is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national team. In 2008, the president of the Republic of Cameroon

signed decrees abolishing provinces and replacing them with regions. Hence all of the ten provinces in the country are now known as regions. (Loreto 1982, 5-11). This thesis will be a focus on the southwest region of Cameroon which is one of the most touristic regions in the country due to its natural resources, culture, and landscape like the mount Cameroon found in Buea which is the capital of the southwest region. Cameroon is one of those countries in Africa with a relatively minor industry that is still growing.

Notwithstanding since the 1970s, the government of Cameroon has cultivated the industry by creating a ministry of tourism and by encouraging investment by airlines, hotels, and travel agencies. Cameroon is known as Africa in Miniature promoting its diversity of climate, culture, and geography. Cameroon is home to many of Africa’s iconic animals such as cheetahs, chimpanzees, elephants, giraffes, gorillas, hippopotami, and rhinoceroses. (Tegomo, Defo & Usongo 2012, 54).

The tourism sector is defined as an industry associated with leisure and travel (Cunha & Cunha, 2005). Additionally, it is considered as one of the top and fastest-growing sectors which can significantly contribute to a country’s economic growth (Osman & Zentosa, 2013; Chin, May-Chiun, Songan, & Vikneswaran, 2014).

With the other major sectors of the economy not performing well, the tourism industry has emerged as the biggest contributor of the GDP since the early 1990s in most African countries and is viewed as the panacea of the African economies (Dieke, 2000; Gauci, Gerosa, & Mwalwanda, 2002). Unsurprisingly this does not go undetected by governments and the private sector.

As the official tourism representative on the German-speaking market for the Western African country of Cameroon; Löwen Touristik is working closely together with the Ministry of Tourism (MINTOUR) of Cameroon to help the country move forward in terms of organizing and arranging trips, marketing Cameroon to existing and potential tour operators in Germany and Austria, and helping this West African country to gain the reputation of a potential touristic destination.

The government itself promotes the country as ‘Afrique en miniature’ or Africa in miniature due to the fact that the country exhibits all major climate and vegetation zones of the continent: from the forested rainforest of the coastal south and southeast to the mountains and savannah of the north and northwest (Leymaries & Perret, 2009; Sheteh, 2012).

Tourism in LIMBE

Moreover, this region is known as the best tourist region in the country to visit. Limbe which is beside Atlantic Beach is known as one of the best cities in the country. This seaside town is also known for its famous BOTANIC Garden which was founded by the German in 1892 under the Directorship of Paul Preus.

The Garden served as a trial and acclimatization Centre for the introduction of exotic crop species such as Coffee, Cocoa, rubber, oil palm, banana, tea, and sugar cane for distribution within the country and other German colonies.

Thus, this Garden was said to be one of the most important tropical botanic gardens in the world. A tourist attraction Centre is known as “jungle village’ ’has been developed in the garden, where popular cultural activities take place during certain events or simply for tourist pleasure. Several routes have been mapped out to enable tourists easy access to the garden. These routes are the coastal trial which enables visitors to have a good view of the western part of the garden; the biodiversity trial facilitates tourists to get a picture of the biodiversity found in the area. Bota adventure trial permits nature lovers to see big trees and some wild animals. (George, Mair & Reid 2009,130.)

Tourism has been an important economic activity in the historical era. Tourists travel from one place to another to gather biodiversity knowledge of historic areas, for leisure, as well as to view the beauty of landscape, culture, and heritage of an environment. Tourism, apart from the pleasures it bestows on the individual, also holds great benefits for the local economy.

Tourism remains one of the largest growing industries worldwide (EEA, 2006) and its GDP ranges between 2% for small-scale tourism countries to 6.2% in countries like Cameroon (WTO, 2015). Tourism is a vital sector of Cameroon’s economy, as it contributes tremendously to its growth. It seems to be a successful industry in the country but despite the accomplishments of this sector.

The Limbe Botanical Gardens is in Bota. It provides a peaceful escape from the nearby bustling city with its thematic gardens, majestic trees, and ideal settings. It stands beside Mount Cameroon and the country’s extensive national park system as one of the outstanding places of interest in the country (Bgci.org, 2017).

The Limbe Botanic Garden was founded by a group of Germans under the Directorship of Paul Preus in 1892. It served as a trial and acclimatization center for the introduction of exotic crop species such as coffee, cocoa, rubber, oil palm, banana, teak, and sugar-cane for distribution within “Kamerun” and other German colonies. In its heyday, the Limbe Botanic Garden was said to be one of the most important tropical botanic gardens in the world. To complement the work in Limbe, experimental plots for high elevation species such as tea (Camellia sinensis) were established in Buea.

The contribution of tourism to economic growth and development is reflected in the form of exports since it represents 40 percent of all exports of services, making it one of the largest categories of international trade (UNWTO, 2006). In 20005, the tourism sector accounted for 3 % to 10% of the GDP of developing countries (UNWTO, 2005). Consequently, it is not surprising to imagine that tourism can be a viable export-oriented economic growth strategy for bringing jobs and development to the people and help in the reduction of abject poverty.

Despite its increasing importance in African economies, however, tourism has attracted relatively little attention in the empirical literature on economic development. Studies examining cross-country rates of growth and development have largely focused on the contributions of experts from the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, rather than those of the service industry.

Even those that explicitly examine the tourism sector in developing nations are primarily concerned with estimating and forecasting tourism demand and income generation via the multiplier process (Sinclair, 1999; Bezmen, 2006).

In a recent study of the economic growth performance of Greece, Dritsakis (2004) shows that tourism has a long-run economic growth effect. Using Spain‟s economic data, Balaguer and Cantavella-Jorda (2002) confirm the validity of the tourism-led growth hypothesis for long-run economic performance. Oh (2005) for Korea, Tosun (1999), and Guduz and Hatemi (2005) for Turkey have also found empirical support for the tourism-led growth hypothesis.

Similarly, employing the convergence approach based on Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1992a) type analysis, Proenca and Soukiazis (2005) examine the impact of tourism on the per capita income growth of Portuguese regions and draw the conclusion that tourism can be considered as an alternative solution for enhancing regional growth in Portugal if the supply characteristics of this sector are improved.

While Cunado and Garcia (2006) also find some evidence of conditional convergence toward the African regional average (for Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Uganda, and Zimbabwe) and the U.S. (for Cape Verde, Egypt, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Tunisia), the coverage given to the contribution of tourism has been scant. Comparing the relative growth performance of 14 “tourism countries” within a sample of 143 countries, Brau, Lanza, and Pigliaru (2003) document that tourism countries grow faster than all the other sub-groups (OECD, Oil Exporting, LDC, Small).

Many developing countries have thus started to consider tourism as an important and integral part of their economic growth and development strategies as it serves as a source of scarce financial resources, job creation, foreign exchange earnings, and technical assistance (Sinclair, 1998; Dieke, 2004).

1.2 Statement of the Problem.

In recent years, tourism has become one of the most important industries around the world. After years of tourism industry development and the exploitation of increasing numbers of new destinations, the impacts of tourism development have been attracting more attention.

The impacts may be short or long term; direct or indirect; local, national, or global; and positive or negative (Hunter & Green, 1995). To begin with, the economic benefit, as the greatest positive impact, is stressed by the tourism industry. Through tourism, impacts range from environmental, social, and economic.

The focus has always been placed on tourism’s economic effects rather than its socio-cultural and environmental impacts during the practice of tourism development and management (Su et al., 2005).

Nevertheless, a series of negative impacts could be predicted in this economy-oriented concept; similar cases can be found all over the world (Theobald, 2001). For this situation, the idea of sustainable tourism development is proposed. It can be argued that the concept of sustainable tourism development aims to strike a balance between socio-cultural, economic, and environmental impacts as far as possible.

1.3 Research Questions

1.3.1 Main Research Question

1. What is the nature of tourism activities in the Limbe botanic garden?
2. How has the presence of the Botanic garden help in Tourism development in the Town of Limbe?
3. What are the challenges faced by the Limbe botanic garden and the tourist who come to visit?
4. What can be done to enhance tourism development at the Limbe Botanic garden?