Abstract

Assessment of socio-cultural tourism impact on the host community of Suntan beach has received less attention, probably because of its unpopularity. One effective way of doing so is with the use of indicators such as “users’ satisfaction of the site” and “tourism effect on the host community”. This study therefore assesses the sustainability of socio-cultural values of Suntan beach, using some selected indicators from a guidebook of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) Indicator’s of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations to prepare questionnaires. The questionnaires captured major aspect of the indicators relating to the behavour and perception of life (cultural values) of the users. Two hundred copies of questionnaires were administered to two categories of respondents randomly selected from among the tourists (n=100) and the local residents (n=100) in the study area. Descriptive statistics was employed in analyzing the questionnaires using statistical package of social science (SPSS). The overall perceptions of the users based on the effect of the tourism on the socio cultural values of the community are average (50%). Therefore, adequate measures should be put in place to ensure sustainability of the cultural values of the area.