NIGERIA: DESTINATION NIGERIA

The scrapping of the ministry of tourism by the current administration may well be a reflection that the ministry has lost its impact and meaningful contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria. Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) during this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Calabar has set forward agenda for advocacy to the federal government to demonstrate more commitment and seek to evaluate the institutions and agencies within Nigeria tourism with a view to stimulate productivity in the sector and enhance its contribution to national economy.

President of NATOP, Nkereuwem Onung, during the association’s annual general meeting (AGM) bemoaned the scrapping of the ministry tourism while lamenting that, ‘it seems that tourism is not a priority on the agenda of the present administration, which is demonstrated by the scraping of the Federal Ministry of Tourism’.

The conference which heralded the AGM became a platform of advocacy that saw Professor Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School presenting papersas the key note speaker. Mrs. Dayo Keshi the Director General of the Nigeria Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) present an insightful paper that explored the enormous potentials of the creative industry in Nigeria and how it can contribute greatly to the country’s economy.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed was represented at the event by the ministry’s Director for Domestic Tourism, Mrs. Ada Okoli.

Mr. Nkereuwem maintained that Nigeria policy makers are turning blind eyes to the quantum benefits that are inherent the tourism potentials of the country, as explained that, ‘It is also necessitated by the fact that despite the potentials of Nigeria’s tourism, our policy makers have not seen it as an alternative to oil.

‘With an earning capacity of over USD$7 billion annually, and according to NCAA records, over USD$1.6 billion was spent by Nigerian on international tickets in 2013 alone, and about 6 per cent compound annual growth rate on hotel room nights in Nigeria, the 1.6million hotel room nights in Nigeria in 2014 is expected to be about 2.2 million room nights in 2019, according to Jovago hotel booking portal. These statistics are both amazing and monumental and we trust that tourism should be at the front burner even at this time in Nigeria history’.

Onung reaffirmed the commitment of NATOP to sustain its efforts to deliver on its mandate of development and promotion of Nigeria’s tourism through strong advocacy, and policy implementations in collaboration with other relevant government bodies and persons within and outside Nigeria.

‘‘Oil is exhaustible but tourism is sustainable’. We believe that things would get better! We believe that Nigeria tourism can have a bigger resume that would encourage tourists and visitors to Nigeria. We believe that Nigeria could have a national carrier that is partially privatized and truly commercialized with the mandate for national development. We can develop our tourist sites with collaboration between government and local communities. We believe that tourism needs accurate and reliable statistics for development. We must know the contributions of tourism to GDP.

The president went on hint that the July 2013 Supreme Court judgment which empowered States in the country to regulate their tourism activities independent of the national government has brought tourism in the country on its knees, saying that, ‘This rendered Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) impotent without any clear mandate, because we understand that tourism is a national government matter’.

He also advocated that creative regulation and rebranding of the country’s cultural institutions to have appeal to attract tourists from all over the world, saying, ‘We also believe that our cultural institutions and events can be regulated and rebranded to make them attractive for local and int’l consumption.

‘Let us approach the Nigeria’s tourism from the perspective of a village expecting their prominent ruler. They will pay attention to transportation, his security, and particularly where he will eat and sleep, and more importantly, he should have a memorable experience. Nigeria has done well as a business destination but we can do better promoting leisure.

‘Let me congratulate Cross River and Lagos States for doing so much to promote tourism in Nigeria. We encourage other states to follow suit’ he concluded.

Mr. Gab Onah, Chairman of Carnival Calabar Commissio, in his address said, ‘We associate with the pains of this sector which is looking like an orphaned sector, striving only to survive based on the sole efforts of the private sector’. But he expressed optimism that ‘this sector cannot die’.

He went on to say that, ‘’ The Carnival Calabar started when the founding fathers of the carnival came together to say that they wanted to create something that would benefit the lives of their people and create employment for people. We wanted to engage our youths meaningfully, and take them out of the street. Any society that does not seek to engage the younger ones is doomed to fail.’

Mr. Onah then revealed that, ‘the carnival is just a platform to market our tourism through festivals and culture.And so we need to get it right. We said if we do it well, to bring a mass of people to enjoy our carnival then we are on track.

‘Government role in tourism is to act as a catalyst. We said that if we get millions of people to line up the kilometers of road to watch the carnival train, and by that engage hundreds of shops along that road for 30 days, that by 2020, the carnival would have been completely privately run and start to pay the government’.

Mrs, Dayo Keshi, the Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), while presenting her paper explained that Nigeria’s creative industry presents alternative imperatives which can drive her economy. ‘Today, there is a lot about government’s commitment and determination to develop the solid mineral sector but very little is being said about the creative industry. Yet, this is an industry with enormous potentials to contribute significantly to the diversification of the Nigeria’s economy by creating employment, generating wealth especially among the rural population.’

The DG fired on as she seemed to implore the participants to join in her crusade, saying, ‘It is very important as those of us in the industry must help create the awareness and knowledge that is required to place the Creative Industry on the same pedestal like oil, solid mineral and agriculture. This is necessary, because we need to change the perception and the way culture is viewed especially by policy makers and encourage them to see and appreciate culture, of which the creative industry is part of an economic prism. Like any other economic sector, it needs support, it needs investment, it needs infrastructure, above all, it needs the conducive environment to grow and develop’.

And capping her speech, Mrs. Keshi posited that, ‘ A cursory observation of tourism-rich economies like the UK, Israel, China and France reveal a common and consistent pattern of Culture based tourism and that Culture is the single biggest motivation of tourism. Therefore Culture, tourism and cultural industries are strongly inter-connected.

‘Thus, the growth and development of Culture is the bedrock of tourism. Indeed almost all tourism is culturally based. What this means for us here is that the diversification program of the new government must pay attention and seek to in-cooperate the Creative Industries and Tourism. Such a synergy will properly harness their potentials’.

She commended NATOP and other Stakeholders’ networks for highlighting these issues and creating positive impact within their own spaces. Having neglected the sector for so long, it is only by creating such synergies that it can thrive and truly become a rival to other revenue earning and generating sectors’.

The DG charged NATOP to create more publicity of NATOPs operations as well as the prospects of collaborations, and to continue to organize public interface programs like the AGM, engaging industry Stakeholders by meeting them in their own spaces and also exploring opportunities for collaboration, identifying the challenges against the development of this sector and formulating sustainable solutions to ensure value chain optimization.

The key note speaker Professor Pat Utomi, in his address traced the path through which successive governments in Nigeria derailed from a competitive economy through the discovery of oil in commercial to the current economic crunch that is biting the country. He then bemoaned the lack of creativity in government, saying, ‘No father runs his family the way we run our country’.

While talking about diversification, he asked rhetorically, ‘What do we diversify to? People are talking about mining, agriculture and so on. But no one is talking about tourism. When we don’t plan; before the mining industry can contribute anything to our economy, it will take at least 15 years! So, what are the low hanging fruits we can go after now? Which are the medium ones?

‘The kind of ground work we need to do before we start talking of making revenue from mining is so enormous. Talk of the infrastructure that would make mining stay is another thing. So, we need to understand the whole system of what diversification is before we get doing it. So, it will take a while to come to it.

‘But there are lower hanging fruits! I want to call it selling culture, the marketization of culture. About 25 years ago I start ranting that Nigeria can make more money from selling culture more than we get from crude oil. Later I started organizing some of the out-of-job fellows who were carrying cameras and shooting films and told them that if we can establish the right model that this was going in the direction of Nigeria’s future. And recently when they took it up to assess the contribution of Nollywood to Nigeria’s GDP, it was running into billions of naira.

‘The problem is that we do not realize how much more we can make from this industry. Let’s take away the abuses that are coming from the system, the sector is already on its way to overtake oil’.

And tapping on tour operators, the professor explained that they need the right approach to creatively insight fashion out strategies that would move that sector forward, to create the right appeal and conviction on tourist to enable them choose Nigeria as a destination both for business and also for leisure.

The event closed with a tour of Calabar after the newly elected NATOP executives were called into office and awards were given to Mrs. Onari Duke, the wife of the former Governor of Cross River State; Ex. NTDC boss Otunba Gbenga Runsewe for his outstanding and excellent work in advancing tourism in Nigeria. Other recipients are Mr. Ikechi Uko of Atq Tours, Mrs. Fati Garbati of Speed Tours, Mr. Chike Osuagwu, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Emeka Anokwuru of The Sun newspapers.