Bring back ‘our tourism’ in 2019

When this present administration came onboard on May 29, 2015, one of its promises was to diversify the Nigerian economy away from its dependence on crude oil revenue.

The diversification promise was partly due to the sustained crash of crude oil price at the global market resulting in economic downturn in most countries whose economies are dependent on revenue from crude oil.

While many people were singing praises of the idea, a few, especially those in the tourism sector pointed out to the Federal Government that tourism is the lowest hanging fruit in economic diversification, both on short and long term planning. Patrick Utomi, a professor of Economics, furthered the call in his speech as the guest speaker at the 2016 annual general meeting of Nigeria Association of Tour Operators in Calabar, Cross River State. Utomi explained that while agriculture, manufacturing, technology among others are sure means of diversification of the economy, tourism, according to him, is the lowest hanging fruit, which government can easily take advantage of its low entry requirement.

It seemed government did not listen to tourism stakeholders. This was obvious with the removal of tourism from the parent ministry, which is now Ministry of Information and Culture with culture subsuming tourism.

The reason some people at government quarters gave for the action was that the government was pruning the ministries to save cost and ensure efficiency. That did not go well with the stakeholders who started calling for a standalone Ministry of Tourism. But government still did not listen, instead Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, said that the ministry was covering tourism well enough and that there was no need to call for separate ministry.

Nkereuwem Onung, who was then the president of Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP), noted that the absence of a full-fledged Ministry has left Tourism adrift and that the absence of a ministry has left stakeholders speculating on matters of Tourism.

Today, little or nothing is heard of tourism because of the lack of a full-fledged or standalone ministry to coordinate tourism activities in the country. Of course, the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, which is primarily charged with the promotion of Nigerian tourism, seems to be doing little.

With all these, the stakeholders made several calls to the government to bring back ‘our tourism’.

Government also responded to the calls. One of the responses was the hosting of the 61st United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Commission for Africa (CAF) meeting in Nigeria at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja in June 2018.

The government also said it was boosting visits into the country with visa-on-arrival policy, though delegates of UNWTO CAF meeting testified to the smoothness of their entry into the country, but subsequent visitors had some complains, especially in the disparity of the charges.

There was also an attempt to revisit the once-abandoned national tourism master plan. But the argument of most stakeholders was that same expatriate that worked on the botched master plan was invited after over a decade to review it. They do not have confidence in his credibility to deliver on the master plan again, yet the Federal Government still engaged him in collaboration of UNWTO.

Again, there was a botched attempt to bring back the Presidential Council on Tourism (PCT) to be chaired by the President where different stakeholder like Immigration, Transport, Aviation, Housing, Environment and relevant state governments come together to discuss way forward and create policies that enhance both in-bound and out-bound tourism. But the move did not gain traction after initial talks.

Sadly, the private sector seems to be pushing the tourism frontiers with little or no effort from government. The likes of Synagogue of all Nations led by Prophet T.B Joshua still woos the highest number of visitors to Nigeria on religious tourism. Others like the Redeemed Church of God, Winners Chapel and Christ Embassy are also drawing many into the country with their conventions and religious meetings.

Of course, Akwaaba African Travel Market is draws the highest number of travel and hospitality experts from across the world in one sitting in Lagos every September, while Calabar Carnival is still the highest crowd puller for leisure tourists. The several music concerts, art fairs, corporate meetings and seminars also draw people.

But all these efforts from the private sector are often not recognized as most event hosts in Nigeria face many challenges, especially immigration to get their guests into the country, there are multiple taxes and salaries must be paid.

So, 2019 presents another fresh start for the country and all the sectors of the economy. But tourism sector, according to stakeholders, still needs a standalone ministry in order to optimally contribute to the economy in 2019 and going forward.

The reasons to make tourism count in 2019 are obvious. With $7.6 trillion revenue (about 10 percent of global GDP) and 277 million jobs; representing one out of every 11 jobs in the world in 2014, tourism is, no doubt, a modern-day engine of growth and one of the largest industries globally.

As at 2018 over a billion people have travelled around the world for tourism and a meager 62 million tourists only visited Africa and a fraction of that number visited Nigeria.

The country should wake up to the realities and potential in tourism. It can boost the economy beyond the imagination of government if well funded like in developed world.

We need truly enabling environment from government in 2019, we need policies that support and secure investments in tourism, especially foreign direct investments, we need tariffs on tourism equipment, tax rebates among other incentives that will encourage the private sector to truly drive tourism.

So, any government that is coming to power on May 29th should give tourism the needed attention to enable it boost the economy.

Nobody should play politics with tourism master plan, the first draft did not sail because it did not carry all the country’s clusters along. The way to go is to consider everything that will make it inclusive, then efforts should be made to revisit Presidential Council on Tourism, tourism satellite account, soft loans for tourism entrepreneurs, connect private sector with policy makers to ensure efficient policies among others.

For all these to happens, Nigeria needs a full-fledged ministry of tourism from the incoming government, a focused Nigerian Tourism Development Corporations and related agencies that see no competition but supporting all other efforts to achieve same result-the tourists’ dollar.