AbstractThis study determined the effectiveness of the Nigeria Visa-on-Arrival (VOA) policy on international inbound tourism development in Cross River State of Nigeria, particularly in terms of tourism accessibility, destination competitiveness, and mobility under the Nigeria Visa Policy (NVP) 2020. This study explored how the VOA process impacted international tourists’ arrival and participation in key tourism destinations and events (Calabar Carnival, Obudu Mountain Resort, Tinapa Business and Leisure Resort, and Leboku New yam festival) and determined how the transition from the VOA system to the digital pre-clearance visa system, scheduled for 2025, impacts international tourists’ accessibility and decisions in destinations and events. The study adopted a quantitative survey research design in which a structured questionnaire was administered to 400 individuals sampled through a multi-stage sampling technique to major destinations in Cross River State. The data analysis method included descriptive statistics and simple linear regression analyzed using SPSS. The findings showed that VOA significantly increases the state’s tourism accessibility, festival tourism activities, tourism mobilities, and business and leisure tourism activities. However, the findings also indicated that negative impacts such as safety concerns, poor destination infrastructure, and stringent implementation of digital pre-clearance affect the flexibility of tourism activities and unplanned travel decisions. Hence, the regression analysis revealed that the VOA policy has a significant positive impact on the international tourism development of Cross River State and that VOA still serves as a tool in increasing destinations’ competitiveness.
Nkwam et al. (Tue,) studied this question.