Cultural Heritage in Nigeria A Study on Preservation and Potential for Tourism Development

The study investigates the preservation and tourism potential of Nigeria’s tangible cultural heritage with aim to identify pathways towards sustainable development. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the study explored the history, challenges and prospects of cultural heritage preservation and tourism promotion in Nigeria. As a nation blessed with such diverse cultural heritage, it is unimaginable that Nigeria is still at a crossroad of opportunities and challenges in leveraging her cultural assets for tourism development as challenges such as infrastructural decay, poor road network, and management deficiencies still exist at most Nigeria’s heritage sites. Consequently, this research embarked on an in-depth exploration of five prominent heritage sites in Nigeria including, National Museum Benin city, Ọ̀ṣun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, Sukur Cultural Landscape, Yankari Game Reserve and Ogbunike Cave, to ensure a multi-case study survey. Adopting a qualitative method design data were collected through semi‑structured interviews, focus group discussions, and open-ended questionnaire surveys from 605 participants including heritage site managers, community leaders, local residents and tourists. The collected data was thematically analyzed and coded on NVivo 15 software for qualitative insights. It was discovered that while Nigeria’s cultural heritage assets face challenges on preservation, its utilization for tourism is untapped and holds immense potential thus transformation is possible with strategic investment, heritage policy reforms and professional capacity building through the collaborative efforts of stakeholders. It was concluded that if properly managed and promoted, cultural heritage could become a lucrative asset for Nigeria.