1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Tourist resorts are essential components of the tourism industry. They are places that thousands of people visit on daily basis for leisure activities, recreation and tourism purposes.
The Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary defines a resort as ?a place where a lot of people go on holiday or vacation.? They could be seaside, mountain, spa, ski resorts and others.
They constitute one of the major supporting structures for activities that promote tourism. According to Krippendorf (1987) any place having unique features can be developed and promoted as a resort. He further explains that resorts are generally appreciated based on the needs they provide and benefits to tourists. They are usually located away from crowded destinations, thus offering peace and isolation to tourists in natural surroundings. They have various facilities to offer to visiting tourists. Many countries of the world have invested much and have gone ahead of others in the development of resorts which have successfully attracted large volumes of tourists.
Tourist resorts abound in the world at different places mostly enhanced by man-made improvements. In many cases, natural tourist resorts or attraction sites are developed to standards much more appreciated by visiting tourists. Sometimes, private individuals engage in large-scale tourist resort developmental projects, in partnership with the government at different levels, or vice versa. This coalition is referred to as private-public-partnership or public-private-partnership (PPP). According to Meine (2006) the issue of funding has given rise to the PPP arrangement. This provides various options for financing tourist resorts and their supporting structures and facilities. In any case, the focus is investment on tourist resorts considering the economic, social and aesthetic contributions of the development of tourist resorts.
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