Visitor Experience Co-Creation and Destination Loyalty in Nigeria’s National Parks: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective

This study examines visitor experience co-creation processes and their effect on destination loyalty in Nigeria's national parks through a self-determination theory perspective, contributing original insights into nature-based tourism behaviour in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria's national parks, including Yankari, Cross River, Gashaka-Gumti, Kainji Lake, and Chad Basin parks, represent underutilised nature tourism assets with significant potential to drive conservation financing and regional economic development. A mixed-method sequential explanatory design is adopted with phase one involving a quantitative survey of 480 park visitors across five national parks and phase two comprising 24 in-depth interviews with park managers, rangers, and high-frequency visitors. The co-creation construct is operationalised across four dimensions: active participation, interaction with park personnel, information co-creation, and personal experience customisation. Self-determination theory's autonomy, competence, and relatedness constructs are applied to examine the psychological mechanisms mediating between co-creation and loyalty. Structural equation modelling results reveal that interaction with knowledgeable park rangers is the most powerful co-creation antecedent of destination loyalty, explaining 28 percent of unique loyalty variance. Competence need satisfaction mediates the ranger interaction-loyalty relationship, confirming the self-determination mechanism. Park infrastructure adequacy is identified as a significant moderator, with co-creation effects substantially attenuated in parks with poor visitor facilities. The study recommends ranger capacity investment, participatory visitor programme design, and infrastructure development as the priority loyalty-building levers for Nigerian park management. Keywords: co-creation, destination loyalty, national parks, self-determination theory, Nigeria