A former Director General of the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Sally Mbanefo, has called for the localisation of Nigeria’s tourism industry, saying the time has come for stakeholders to appreciate the country’s rich and abundant tourism potential to grow the economy.

Mbanefo, who was speaking at the Tourism Parliament titled “Unveiling Executive Tourism MICE” and themed “Tourism as a Catalyst for Job Creation and Economic Diversification: A Call to Action for Nigerian Governors” in Abuja on Thursday, commended the Federal Government for the creation of the Ministry of Tourism, which she said Nigeria can use as an avenue to rediscover the tourism sector as a money-spinning for the country.

She, however, called on stakeholders in the tourism industry to give the Minister and Ministry of Tourism every support they need to succeed.

“I travelled around the country when I was the DG of NTDC. So I know exactly what we have. We recorded, we took pictures, and we filmed all the assets we have. What we need, as I stated before I left (NTDC), is for us to come back to domestic tourism. With the state of the economy, people don’t have money to travel. This is the time when we should appreciate what we have. And we’re lucky that the government has given us recognition. This is something we were fighting for. We were under communication when I was there.

“This is a good step in the right direction, and it is the job of the government to create an enabling environment where tourism operators can operate. The Ministry of Tourism is just settling down, and I think the private sector should reach out to them and give them the support they need. The Nigerian tourism operators are so resilient. They don’t give up; they keep on moving and pushing. One day, the wall would break.

Speaking on the security challenges in the country that may affect the tourism industry, Mbanefo said, “Security is a state of mind. You can see that Abuja has fantastic roads. I have been here from Lagos since April. I have not left, and I’m really having a fabulous time. It depends on your community. Tourism is a community-based thing. Security has a broader sense, but we still have a lot of traces where there is safety. It’s also the culture of creation—the culture of appreciating where you come from.

“The culture of going back home and grass-rooting yourself and finding out where you came from. A community without a culture has no history. We just need to go back to the bases,” she said.

The convener of the Tourism Parliament, Ambassador Ayo Omotosho, urged the government, especially the Nigeria Governors Forum, to give the tourism sector the necessary push to succeed as well as use the media to project Nigeria’s tourism to the outside world.

“It is essentially to use the media to project tourism positively in Nigeria. It’s also to discuss various issues surrounding tourism development in Nigeria. This is not the first of its kind. We have been doing it in Lagos, but we are having it here in the city of Abuja for the first time so that we can communicate directly with Mr. President. I want to thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for listening to the yearnings of the stakeholders in Nigeria by creating the stand-alone Ministry of Tourism.

“And ever since that time, the Honourable Minister, Lola Ade-John, has been very active in promoting domestic tourism through a community-based approach in all her policies. Today is another way and dimension of unveiling executive tourism MICE, the first of its kind in Nigeria.

“We are a population of about 250 million established as a corporate country in 1960. Ever since that time, we have not seen what we’ve seen here today. You can see that the stakeholders are happy and they’ve endorsed it which is Destination Nigeria Governors Tourism Conference.

“We are partnering with the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and through them, we can reach out to other governors because we know there are governors who are tourism-friendly in Nigeria. But we want to incorporate all 36 states and the FCT into this project because tourism is life and is like politics.”

According to a 2017 tourism report by the World Economic Forum, travel and tourism currently contribute about 2 percent to Nigeria’s GDP compared to other African countries such as Seychelles, Cape Verde and Mauritius where the travel and tourism industry has been better harnessed, contributing 20 percent, 17 percent and 12 percent respectively to GDP.

Also, the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum in 2017 ranks Nigeria low 129th out of 136 countries compared to Ghana and South Africa which rank 120th and 53rd respectively.

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