Stakeholders in the tourism sector have called on government at all levels to ensure provision of basic infrastructure to further enhance its contributions to national economy.
The stakeholders made the call at the ongoing 7th annual National Tourism Transportation Summit and Expo (NTTSE), at the Velodrome of the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
The two-day summit, which began on Dec. 3, has the theme: “Tourism Transportation Connectivity: Accelerating the Synergy for National Economic Development”.
According to the stakeholders, Nigeria has vast sites and attractions that need to be properly accessed and developed to attract tourists for national economic gains.
They, however, decried the poor state of basic infrastructure, especially poor road networks across the country, which has hampered accessibility of tourism sites and locations.
It brought together industry players from both the public and private sectors and representatives of relevant institutions, including Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN), Federal Capital Territory Transportation Secretariat, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC).
Others include Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Nigerian Shippers Council, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Ministry of Aviation, National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism(NIHOTOUR) and Nigerian Tourism Development Authority(NTDA),among others.
Dr Kayode Opeifa, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Mobility and Access Development (CenSMAD), said insecurity and transportation challenges must be effectively tackled for Nigeria’s tourism sector to strive.
“You see, tourism is simply mobility, movement of people to places of interest beyond their place of residence, and that tells you tourism is 50 to 80 per cent transportation.
“So, when people cannot move, they don’t have access, then tourism will die because if you have all the centres of tourism and there is no access to them, nobody will go.
“That is why I said government should pay conscious effort, not just have a ministry of tourism or whatever, but you must have a ministry of tourism that you consciously ensure that infrastructure are provided.
“I am suggesting that the Federal Government, beyond the tourism sector, should provide incentive to state governments who have tourist sites for the purpose of accessibility,” he said.
Mr Nkereuwem Onung, President, Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), said that collective efforts was needed by government at all levels to fix infrastructure decay, especially bad roads.
“The problem we actually have is that Nigerian public sector does not realise that for us to have a proper tourism industry, government needs to harness infrastructure properly.
“We have been to different countries, and you see what people are using to market their country’s tourism, and that is why I do not want to harp on the security question.
“I will rather want to stay on the infrastructure issue, and if we develop our infrastructure, it will help our tourism,” he said.
Mr Folorunsho Coker, Director-General, NTDA, said besides infrastructure, inconsistent policy was a major in the sector.
“There is a need for consistency in terms of public policy, and if you don’t have that consistency, private capital will not come and sit down with you.
“From the law, regulations, taxation, if there is no consistency, would you put your money in that kind of ecosystem?
“If there was no consistency in policies, we will not have ‘GSM’and the different banks we have now, and that consistency has to be demonstrated both with transportation and the tourism ecosystem.
“Technology is the new thing in both transportation and tourism, and if we do not use technology, we will be sitting down paying lip service to the problem,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Abiodun Odusanwo, National President, Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria (ITPN), said the summit was a flagship initiative for tourism stakeholders.
Odusanwo, who is also the chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Organising Committee (IMOC) of the summit, said the annual event was a platform for stakeholders in tourism to form a common-front toward making the sector thrive.
He said besides paper presentations, some of the key areas the summit would focus on during panel discussion sessions include infrastructure development, regulatory frameworks, capacity building, marketing and promotion, among other areas.
“The whole idea started in 2017 during the meeting of the National Council on Transportation when we actually presented a memo to the council seeking for collaboration between tourism and transportation.
“We observed that those in transport are operating in silos; those in rail, aviation, even those within the mass transportation, everybody seems to be operating in silos.
“The life of a typical traveler can go through all the modes of transportation and that is why it is nice to have collaboration, a synergy between tourism and all those different transportation modes.
“We have, therefore, a team design driven connectivity, networking, also among these agencies to ensure that we have a more or less seamless movement, mobility of people within the country,” he said.
While declaring the conference open on Tuesday, tHannatu Musawa, Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, said the federal government was committed to creating an enabling environment for tourism to thrive.
The minister, who was represented by her Special Assistant, Nanayakkara Roshan, said Nigeria’s tourism sector holds the promise of being a key driver for economic diversification, especially as the nation looks beyond oil-dependent growth.