APPLICATION OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) IN TOURISM MAPPING FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN OWO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA (LGA), ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Maps had always remained essential tourism resources. That map has essential roles to play in the effective and efficient management of tourism resources is an ineluctable fact. In Nigeria, tourist maps are significantly lacking in comprehensiveness, accuracy and up-to-date geo- referencing. This study is to produce a digital Street Map of Owo, a traditional town in Ondo State using Satellite Remote Sensing, Global Positioning System and Geographic Information System technologies. A well structured tourism database for Owo Township will also be designed. Recommendations would be made on how tourist maps could be cheaply and quickly produced. A Single Frequency GPS (SFGPS) was used for the Establishment of Ground Controls for geo-referencing. A Hand-Held GPS and a digital Camera were used to pick the locations and photographs of some tourist attractions that included hotels, restaurants and museums. Identification of street networks, streams and tourist attractions centers were simultaneously captured on the field. In the office, the SFGPS was downloaded and the co-ordinates obtained were used for geo-referencing. Thereafter, the enhanced imagery was digitized into various layers (themes) of details as captured on the field. Finally, graphical and textual data were merged with the database tables in a GIS environment to produce the first up-to-date tourist map of Owo. It is expected that this work will generate enough positive reactions that will lead to the development of the tourism potentials of Owo and will also serve as a model for further work in the production of tourist maps for Nigeria.