The Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) has called on the Federal Government to overhaul the process of issuing Nigeria’s visas in the country’s foreign embassies to make it easier, faster and also eliminate multiple levies.
The call was made by the FTAN president, Alhaji Rabo Saleh Kareem, recently during a courtesy call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyema, in Abuja.
The  FTAN president raised private sector concerns about national issues bedeviling Nigeria’s tourism industry, and solicited the support of the foreign affairs minister to address them on crucial platforms like the Federal Executive Council meeting. He also called on the minister to put in place strategic image management measures that would counter the pervasive negative reports against Nigeria in the international media.
Rabo said a lot tourists desirous of visiting Nigeria were finding it difficult to secure visas at Nigerian foreign missions, and called on the minister to quickly intervene.  He lamented that the long number of days it took inbound tourists to get Nigerian visas does not promote inbound tourism, as the process was slow and replete with multiple levies. The FTAN president also reiterated the private sector’s support for issuing visa on arrival to Nigeria.
In his response, Onyema challenged tourism businesses in Nigeria to create more visible, all inclusive tour packages to attract more inbound tourists, especially for Nigeria-bound international conference participants. He, therefore, called on FTAN to produce attractive brochures of cultural tourism destinations and city tour packages for distribution at embassies and international meetings.
The minister further revealed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was setting up an online merchant portal to showcase Nigerian brands and attract investors. To this end, he promised to give FTAN an opportunity to also upload unto the portal tour packages and tourism events calendar.

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