CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
For the past decades, man has not been able to do with travelling. Travelling has however been a second nature for a high percentage of them. People travel for various reasons ranging from pleasure, relaxation, exploration, commerce, education events and for some, just for the fun of it. Travelling dates back to the existence of man (Ashamu, 2007).Travelling for various purposes is associated with man (Walker and Walker, 2011). He added that it was in the course of travelling, tourism was discovered. Right from the prehistoric period to the Neolithic age precisely between 4000 and 5000 B.C, individuals travelled for the purpose of their safety and to fend for their needs. Many tourism-centred organizations and indeed the Nigerian’s tourism sector seem to have been subjected to underdevelopment following the effects of poor transportation for tourism development. Transport or transportation is the movement of people, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field of transportation can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles and operations. Transport is important since it enable trades between peoples, which in turn establish civilization. Uche (2010) is of the view that vehicles travelling on these networks may include automobiles, bicycles, busses, trains, trucks, people, helicopters, and aircraft. Operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated and the producers set for the purpose including financing, legalities and policies. In the transport industry, operations and ownership of infrastructure can be either public or private, depending on the country and mode. Passenger transport may be public, where operation provide scheduled services or private freight transport has become focused on containerization, although bulk transport is used for large volumes of durable items. While it is heavily subsidized by governments, good planning of transport is essential to make traffic flow, and restrain urban sprawl. The study will pay more attention to road transportation. Since 1960, Nigeria’s road transportation infrastructure has enjoyed the largest outlay of foreign investment compared with other modes and remains the preferred option for door to door linkage. Until recently, the policy initiative on road infrastructure development, funding, maintenance and even operations has been the sole responsibility of the various tiers of government.