The Distance Decay Theory. Its Applications On the Nigerian Tourism Industry

Scientific Study from the year 2019 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: 5.0, University of Nigeria, language: English, abstract: Distance exerts a significant filtering effect on the type of person willing or able to travel, which in turn affects behaviour and consumption patterns within destinations. Distance decay is observed widely in spatial studies and best describes the relationship between distance and tourism demand. In tourism, demand curves typically peak some distance away from an entertainment source and rapidly tail off; they also take two other forms: a wide plateau near the source, or a series of shrinking peaks. In this essay, this theory is applied to the Tourism industry. In all manner of ways, the lives and activities of people everywhere are influenced by the friction of distance. This shows that distance has a retarding effect on human interaction because there are increasing penalties in time and cost associated with longer-distance, more expensive inter changes. We visit nearby friends more often than distant relations, we go more frequently to the neighbourhood convenience store than to the farther regional shopping centre. Telephone calls or mail deliveries between nearby towns are greater in volume than those to more distant locations.

Chinwe Chimezie Uwaoma is graduate of Archaeology and Tourism/ English from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She also has a Masters degree in Anthropology from the University of Ibadan Nigeria. She is currently a Ph.D student at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She is a renowned scholar with scholarly articles on Heritage Tourism, Tourism and Authenticity and Revitalization in Heritage Tourism. She is married with two children and she lives with her family in Port Harcourt Nigeria.