ABSTRACT:- This study investigated the tourism industry as a potential source of revenue enhancement to the Nigerian economy. The study used datasets from the World Development Indicator from 1995 to 2023. Gross national income was used as dependent variable while tourism trips, expenditure, employed persons and inbound arrivals served as the independent variables. The Autoregressive Distributed lag model form of regression was used as the key estimation technique. Findings arising from the study showed that tourism arrivals, trips and number of employed people significantly affected national revenue while, expenditure had no significant effect. It is recommended that the tourism sector in Nigeria should be developed for the necessity of economic growth and diversification.

Keywords: Tourism development, National Income, ARDL model, Economic diversification.