Sustainable Tourism Development and Trade Facilitation in Nigeria and the Caribbean

The study discussed about the link between sustainable tourism development (dimensioned by both socio-cultural sustainability and Policy & Institutional framework) and Trade Facilitation (proxied by tourism trade Linkages) in Nigeria and the Caribbean. The Leiper’s theory was behind the study whereas the philosophical posture was positivism. The ex post facto research design was adopted and the secondary data collected from published reports, government statistics and databases in industry formed the basis of the analysis of the tourism and economic indicators across the two countries-Nigeria and the Caribbean. The study found out that socio-cultural sustainability was significantly linked with tourism trade linkages thus indicating that well-targeted festivals and cultural exchange efforts contributed towards trade facilitation. Policy & Institutional framework support was also positively and significantly related to tourism trade linkages, indicating that increased policies were associated with sustainable development of tourism and trade facilitation. There was a stronger policy-driven dimension to trade conversion in the Caribbean region compared to the infrastructure-led trade flows limited by the weak institutional facilitation of trade in Nigeria. The results of the study offer the conclusion that aligned tourism systems, proposed by Leiper, improve trade spillover effects and regional integration in emerging tourism economies. Therefore, as postulated by several researchers, it is recommended that policymakers and tourism managers enhance the enhancement of tourism driven trade through proper coordinated sustainable cultural integration including heritage music diplomacy. Songs such as “Swing low, sweet chariot.” Based on a common African-Caribbean slave past, it should be a core built-in into tourism festivals and heritage routes, establish a common Joint Nigeria Caribbean Trade Facilitation Desk within the structure of AfCTFA and CARICOM to harmonise policies and institutions, prioritise connectivity infrastructure, move from community-based tourism to inclusive tourism and focus on income-generating backward links. These combined strategies will contribute effectively to creation of corporate linkages on local and international level to the achieve a win-win situation and effective tourism trade linkages.