Is Tourism Regulation Catalyst for Abuja FCT Nigeria Hotels Business Performance Innovation?

This chapter presents the outcome of a study that examined the phenomena ‘Is Tourism Regulation Catalyst for Abuja Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nigeria, Hotels Business Performance Innovation? Previous studies on this subject area have been largely done around tourism and its impact on hotel business performance and the relationship between tourism regulation and hotel business performance from mostly Western perspectives. Hence, this study aims to investigate the direct effect of tourism regulations on hotel business performance in Nigeria. Quantitative survey questionnaires were used to collect data from 176 participants comprising general managers and departmental heads in 22 key Abuja FCT Nigerian hotels. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) developed by Norton and Kaplan was adopted as the study's theoretical framework. Data collected were analysed using the simple linear regression technique and SPSS statistical analysis software tool.
The result of the analysis shows that tourism regulation has a significant and positive correlation with Abuja hotel business performances based on the BSC four dimensions of financial, customer, processes, and learning and growth. The unique city characteristics of Abuja FCT were also identified as an issue for consideration in future tourism regulation innovation by the regulatory authorities. This study contributes to business performance measurement literature from the Abuja FCT hotels, Nigerian perspective, and sets an agenda for the Nigerian tourism regulators, the NTDC, charged with diversifying the Nigerian economy revenue through Tourism performance innovation. Also, a policy study into city characteristics classification as a way of innovating tourism regulations and hotel business performance is suggested.