The Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) will host the Nigeria Tourism Investors Forum and Exhibition; NTIFE – its annual flagship tourism event from November 19 to 20, 2019, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja. FTAN president, Alhaji Saleh Rabo, also, chairman organising committee, confirmed that a number of stakeholders, leading travel brands and government agencies, including state governments, would showcase their tourism assets and destination offerings at the event. In previous events, some tourism-friendly states participated in NTIFE by taking up exhibition booths to showcase their tourism potentials, to attract tourists, financial investors, and eventually grow their internally generated revenue (IGR) base. Speaking with reporters in Abuja, Alhaji Rabo said “Our primary goal is to get a workable consensus among stakeholders and facilitate the enactment of a pro-tourism development Act of Parliament. Considering the inter-governmental and multi-sectoral nature of the global tourism industry, Nigeria needs a legislative framework that clearly stipulates roles and responsibilities of government and the organised private sector.”
He said, “FTAN earnestly desires a nationally applicable development legal instrument which respects the rights of state governments to regulate tourism in their domains, and at the same time, empower the private sector to invest in the sector’s development with powers of administration, standardisation and regulation of tourism practice and operations in Nigeria. This is already happening in several leading tourist destinations of the world, and it is long overdue in Nigeria, otherwise we would not grow the industry here. This is the thinking behind the NTIFE event theme: “An insight into the legal framework of Tourism in Nigeria”.
Since inception, NTIFE has typically been an annual gathering of investors in the tourism industry and is endorsed by the Ministry of Information and Culture, with the Minister, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, scheduled to give this year’s keynote address. Also, Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sani Nanono, who is Chairman of Board, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, will address participants on November 19- the first day of the event.
Speaking further, Rabo said, “You may recall that in 2013, the Supreme Court of Nigeria gave a landmark judgement, which stated that tourism, like culture, is the statutory responsibility and can only be regulated by states governments; and not the federal government. This is because tourism matters come under the residual list of Nigeria’s 1999 constitution, as amended.”
Rabo expressed the industry’s frustration at the lack of progress in the sector before 2013 and long after. He explained that Nigeria’s tourism industry has been like a rudderless ship, with the diverse tourism value-chain operators seemingly working in fiefdoms, without the much required coordination to grow the nascent tourism economy into a leading tourist destination that employs thousands of direct and indirect workers. Alhaji Rabo added that, “We are not contesting the Supreme Court judgement on the matter; in fact we cannot, because the Supreme Court is the final court in Nigeria. But the operational reality of tourism is that states alone cannot successfully administer and regulate a sustainable tourism industry. For tourists to come, they would first use the services of Federal government agencies and infrastructure including visa, transportation, and national security, among others, which come under the exclusive list of our constitution. Furthermore, the tourist products (they are actually intangible services) that attract tourists to Nigeria are provided by the tourism private sector – most of whom are FTAN members.”
“For us at FTAN, the objective of NTIFE 2019 is to deeply examine the 2013 Supreme Court Judgement in the case between Lagos State and the Federal Government of Nigeria, and re-examine the emerging tourism value-chain differences in the industry, with the view to come out with a legal instrument of tourism administration and regulation in Nigeria through the National Assembly. Such a legislation should serve the needs of State governments, the Federal government and most importantly the private sector tourism operators.”
The event is expected to be attended by federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), States Commissioners for Tourism, travel and hospitality corporate organisations, including national and international tourism stakeholders and investors. Traditionally, attendance to NTIFE is open to tourism business operators, travel enthusiasts, tourism students and the general public, free of charge. NTIFE is arguably the best rendezvous to find and network with tourism service providers, such as hotel brands and franchises, leading restaurateurs, travel agents, inbound and outbound tour operators, tourism academia and travel research organisations.