Tourism can take Nigeria out of recession –NANTA

The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) is seeking stronger collaboration between the Federal government and investors in the tourism industry as part of measures to harness resources in the two sectors for national growth.
President of NANTA, Mr Bankole Bernard, said at a press briefing ahead of the 41st Annual General Meeting (AGM) slated for March 21, 2017 in Lagos, noted that for the travel and tour agents need to do more to market the Nigerian tourism industry noting that  the tourism industry held strong potentials of boosting national income and assisting efforts to end the ongoing economic recession.
“As travel agents we know what happens all over the world; we know how aviation is used to unlock the tourism potentials in many countries around the world,” said Bernard.
“Harnessing the potentials in our tourism industry is very important at this period in our country where we are under a recession. We need to work harder to open up the tourism industry now to boost revenue. We need to look beyond selling air tickets to selling our tourism destinations. Tourism can take Nigeria out of this recession,” he added.
Bankole said NANTA would be using the AGM as a platform to gather aviation sector stakeholders to discuss how to tap effectively into the Nigeria tourism sector. He gave the theme of the AGM as: “Tourism in a Recessed Economy: The Way Forward.”  According to him, it has become imperative that the government should invest in the requisite infrastructure especially roads, rails, and security to assist tourism industry investors.
He said the guest speakers would be the former Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Arnold Demuren and the Chief Executive Officer of Med-View Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole.m
Notable guests expected at the event include, former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; Information and Culture minister, Alhaji Lai Muhammed: Minister of state for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika: the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II; the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, Mrs. Chika Balogun and the Ag director general of Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Mrs Mariel Rae Omoh.  among other dignitaries are set to grace the the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) Annual General Meeting, AGM in Lagos.