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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
In a bid to diversify the economy, the Federal Government has reiterated its determination to double its investment in Nigeria’s tourism sector.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, stated this recently in Abuja, at the 5th Edition of the National Tourism and Transportation titled: ‘African Continental Free Trade Area: Strengthening Connectivity Effects and Partners.’
Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Culture, Dr Ifeoma Anyanwutaku, he sought the collaboration of stakeholders and encouraged investors to key into the sector.
He said: “With the participation of key stakeholders, the sector will not only increase revenue at the national, state and local levels but also improve the quality of life and wellbeing of our people by providing business opportunities as well as employment opportunities.
“In all of these, there is the need for the private sector to work in close partnership with the public authorities to ensure that the needs of tourists are well understood and adequately catered for.
“Sustainable tourism requires open dialogue between governments, the private sector, civil society and the host communities to promote consensual decisions and spread its economic benefits to a broad spectrum of our people.
“I wish to conclude by commending the organizers of this laudable event and assure you.
“This theme is considered very apt and also very timely, as it is hoped to address the fundamental policy issues of common interests to the transportation and tourism sectors of the African continent.
“The focus is on the common understanding and approach towards more reliable, efficient and affordable transportation linkages between source markets and destinations in order to foster sustainability in tourism in trade, and also in economic cooperation.
“Appreciate the need for this synergy is to understand the connectivity and partnership between Tourism and transportation while tourism compasses the network of activities of persons who travel to and stay at destinations outside their normal place of residence, for a myriad of reasons.
“Transportation provides the means of getting to those destinations. The processes of travel today are so wide and varied that almost every travel is one type of tourism or the other.
“Undoubtedly, therefore the role of transportation in tourism is so pertinent that tourism cannot take place without the element of movements for which transportation is a critical means.”
Meanwhile, the National President, Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), Nkereuwem Onung, contented that tourism and transportation should be given pride of place as it would boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“The link between transportation and tourism. Now, this link is very important, because when we want to calculate the GDP of tourism, we only look at travel and that is why sometimes we are told they can’t give us a ministry of our own.
“Because they are not seeing the contributions of tourism to GDP. And when you contribute to Transportation and you bring aviation, we have people who are doing events now because they think that tourism is not viable.
“So they begin to get into alliances with other departments of the economy. And that’s why we like to use this again to call on the federal government.
“Our president, it’s time to reenact the PCC, the Presidential Council on tourism where the President is the chairman where you bring the eight different ministries together so that tourism will find focus in Nigeria.
“Now the sector is so dysfunctional, and we even think that some of the agencies of the federal government are illegal because of laws and because of 2013 supreme court judgments, we are told that tourism resides with the state, he said.”
