The Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) has expressed confidence that Nigeria’s health officials’ effort at containing the Corona Virus would be successful, and that the Covid-19 scare should not stop leisure and business tourists from visiting Nigeria.
The Tourism Federation gave this assurance at the end of their Governing Council Meeting held in Abuja on March 5. The FTAN president, Alhaji Saleh Rabo, who spoke to reporters after the meeting, called on all Nigerians and foreign travellers to fully comply with the Corona virus preventive processes set up at Nigeria’s entry ports and other public places. He said, FTAN highly commends the relentless efforts of Nigerian health officials including the Port Health Services, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, and Federal and States Ministries of health.
Alhaji Rabo revealed that FTAN, which is the only national umbrella body of the organized tourism private sector, has since intensified sensitization of her 23 federating member Associations on the likely effects of Covid-19 in Nigeria’s travel and tourism businesses. He said Tourism is a personal contact service endeavour, as such tourism and hospitality operators need to be vigilant and to fully deploy all the government advised Corona virus preventive measures. FTAN President said the Federation in Nigeria also supports the position of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) against the issuance of Travel Restrictions.
He said issuing travel restrictions at this stage of Covid-19 would be counterproductive and could adversely affect the fortunes of tourism operators in Nigeria. Meanwhile, Alhaji Rabo admitted that it is cheering news to learn from the Minister of Health that the Italian, who is the index Corona virus infected person in Nigeria, is responding to treatment and recovering fast. And we hope that the second reported confirmation of another infected person will recover very soon. The President of FTAN assured reporters that Nigeria is safe for tourism, both domestic and inbound, and advised against Corona Virus scaremongering.