The organised body of travel writers, journalists and bloggers (ANJET) came out strong last week to fault poor government attention and investment in the Nigerian tourism economy. Apart from the sad and offending lip service paid to the growth of the sector, the travel writers bemoaned the very disappointing operational focus of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and it various parastatals charged with tourism responsibilities.
The ANJET position, which is a call to rescue the sector, is very interesting and tells a lot of its leadership and members who are pained at the low status of the sector. These young men and women, patriotic Nigerians, cannot understand why a tourism promotion agency should flutter on its responsibilities of aggressive marketing and promoting of Nigerian tourism.
On a stand-alone ministry for culture and tourism, the association noted that the present operational focus, which lumped information as part portfolio, has not benefited the development of the sector, hence the need for the federal government to revert the ministry to its original status, focusing only on culture and tourism.
In recent times, this argument has been dragged back and front, generating the sad vent that the federal government three years ago did not consult with stakeholders before merging culture, tourism with information. Indeed, the cost of experimenting with this agenda was glaring as tourism was buried to the advantage of information but for the serious intervention and visibility given to tourism through the activities of National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) under the watch of Segun Runsewe.
Significantly, ANJET is right on the button that Nigeria has not established a socio-economic foothold on tourism arrivals and earnings. According the association, tourism posted about $7.6 trillion, about 10 per cent of global gross domestic product, which responded to issue of unemployment with over 277 million jobs, representing one out of every 11 jobs unveiled in 2014. On the barometer of international visits and arrivals, ANJET underlined a $1.4 billion ranking, which amounts to about 6 per cent growth with African countries recording a mere 67 million arrivals with no one sure of what Nigeria recorded under the period in focus.
These failings, AMJET noted, could have been corrected if Nigeria had a verifiable statistics or barometer to capture arrivals into the country. It is, therefore, not surprising to note that Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) was challenged by the writers of tourism to redirect its energy and renew dedication in ensuring a proper mix in the marketing and promotion of tourism, particularly the domestic offerings, not foreclosing international exposure, which did not enjoy the attention of NTDC in the past four years.
On hotel classification and grading, the association suggested a win-win situation, with NTDC creating the needed platform where all the benefits would be discussed with federating state agencies. Admittedly, the current legal position on this issue favours the states but in actual practice and execution most states may be found wanting in logistics, manpower and adequate funding.
Indeed, the holistic involvement and participation of all touris-generating agencies, including those in aviation, would fast-track the sector and empower its practitioners. Progressively, ANJET’s detailed position on happenings in the sector can be taken as serious blue print to change the hazy picture of development in the sector, not again foreclosing the fact the Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN) has not lived up to expectation in husbanding solutions that may place practitioners in good stead to compete and develop marketable tourism offerings and products.
To walk tall and ensure that tourism and culture gets needed attention on the fast break, the travel writer’s body advocated the return of Presidential Council Tourism (PCT) initiated during the Obasanjo era in order to quicken the appreciation of the economic value and to encourage state governors to embrace true tourism message of job creation and poverty alleviation. Though signs of PCT reconstitution maybe far – fetched in view certain policy focus of federal government, Anjet position appears as part solution to re-establishing the economic focus of tourism and its possible advantage to effectively create jobs.
However, one wonder if the government is sincerely ready to dialogue with Anjet and the stakeholders to find a way out of this log jam. Though, a rare show of courage by members of tourism writer community, their intervention has exposed the many weak links in our tourism adventure and expectation.