EXploitation des potentialites touristiques et developpement dans le noun central (villages de njimom, marom et mantoum)

Abstract

Tourism is an income and employment generating sector in most developing and transitional countries. It has become an essential source of riches and growth. Cameroon has been termed “Africa in miniature” and today renamed as “all of Africa in a single countryas a result of its multivaried potentials. However, despite these riches, we still notice that tourism faces great difficulties to take off. Foumban is generally considered as the main touristic centre in the Noun division meanwhile besides this are other reliable tourist destinations endowed with several potentials which can be harnessed for tourism purposes. This works enables us to see that, in the Noun division we cannot only emphasise or lay focuses on the town of Foumban but other little tourism centres endowed with magnificent tourist attractions. The choice of the Njimom, Marom and Mantom villages was done to illustrate that the exploitation of tourism potentials of these localities can contribute to their development. Field surveys were carried out in line with literature reviews on tourism in general and our zone of study specifically. These have enabled us to collect relevant data on the existence of natural, cultural and historical potentials and the impact which their exploitation can have on the socio-economic development of the chosen study areas. Results collected from the field revealed that, these localities possess several tourism potentials which are still less exploited and the impacts of their exploitation are still insufficient to boost the development of these villages. This partial exploitation is caused by several factors among which is the lack of political will, the absence of synergy among stakeholders, the lack of socio-economic infrastructures, the poor state of roads, the absence of tourism establishments etc.. In this trend, an effective tourism valorisation of these potentials is necessary for the communities chosen as zones of study. This can be made possible via means such as the implantation of a real political will, the implementation of a harmonious collaboration amongst stakeholders, the full implication of all social classes in the management of tourism affairs and the establishment of tourist infrastructures such that the fruits of such actions can be important to foster the socio-economic development of these villages and thus promote the enhancement of the living conditions of the population in a sustainable manner.