CULTURAL TOURISM AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Cultural tourism has surfaced as an essential component of national development scheme particularly in nations with diverse cultural heritage and rich traditions. It offers opportunities for economic growth, job creation and the preservation of indigenous cultures, while promoting social unity and national identity. Nevertheless, development of cultural tourism is faced and often hindered by several challenges, not undermining its benefits towards national development property and effectively employed or utilized cultural tourism despite its problems and challenges can present immense prospects for national development by engaging local communities, adopting a sustainable development practices, formulating polices that are inclusive, nations can be transform cultural resources into powerful tools for socio- economic progress. This paper tries to explore the problems or challenges associated with cultural tourism, its types, and prospects towards national development strategies that can remodel cultural tourism as a mechanism for sustainable national development. The systematic utilization of internet sources, books, journals and lecture notes, were consulted. The paper concludes, that cultural tourism can act as a strategy, with inclusion of polices for national development.