Stakeholders of the Nigerian tourism industry recently held a forum seesion themed ‘Rebuilding the NTDC and Growing the Tourism Value Chain for Revenue Generation and Job Creation’ at the Civic Centre in Lagos last Monday. The Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Edem Duke, said the forum gave full expression to the transformation agenda in the tourism sector.
The Federal Government was noted to have restated its commitment to diversifying the nation’s revenue base, with a plan to develop the tourism sector to generate more earnings and create more jobs.
According to the Hon. Minister, the ministry has President Goodluck Jonathan’s approval of the transformation agenda in the ministry which provides “a rallying point for showcasing Nigeria’s tourism assets by articulating a strategic brand positioning for Nigeria in the international arena aptly christened Fascinating Nigeria. This is imperative because the world has moved beyond traditional diplomacy into an era of brand diplomacy.”
While stating that the ministry has entered into a strategic partnership with a Dubai-based destination marketing company to domesticate best practices from their experiences, he called on all stakeholders in the Nigerian project to support the re-energised brand positioning.
“We urge corporate citizens and every Nigerian, indeed, to proudly start a word-of-mouth campaign in support of our media campaigns, especially on international platforms,” he said.
The minister said his ministry is mindful of the many challenges faced by stakeholders across the Tourism value chain. “From the operator, who is confronted with multiple taxes and high cost of capital to the Nigerian citizens who are more likely to be below 35 years of age and seeking better paying job so they can have time for leisure and domestic travel.”
Duke said, “in line with the policy of this administration to provide an enabling environment for the private sector to be the engine of economic growth and job creation, we encourage private investors to partner with the NTDC as it unveils programmes and projects.”
The Director General of NTDC, Sally Mbanefo, while unfolding her transformation agenda, said her focus would be domestic tourism.
According to the DG, “the domestic tourism market has very high revenue and job creation potential. If we assume that a low estimate of 20 million out of 160 million Nigerians travel locally for business, leisure, culture, religion or sport yearly, and they spend only 10 per cent of Nigeria’s per capital income of $2000 yearly, we will have $4 billion domestic tourism market and hence our focus at NTDC is on developing domestic tourism as the foundation for attracting international tourists.”
According to Mbanefo, “we cannot achieve anything without the support of all the stakeholders, home and abroad.”
The chairman of the occasion, Mr. Andrew Alli, who is President, African Finance Corporation, described tourism as a major driver of infrastructural investment on the continent. He noted that financing is not a major challenge as some investors may want to believe that “if the business idea is good, accessing funding may not be difficult. Financial organisations are only looking out for key factors that can mitigate the risk,” he said.
