The Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria (ITPN), organisers of the National Transportation Tourism Summit and Expo has promised to give this year’s edition a global outreach with significant step to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) trade regime.
The National President Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria (ITPN) and Chairman Main Organising Committee of ITTS&E 2021, Chief Abiodun Odusanwo, in a statement noted that the all-inclusive event is coming with a broad spectrum of activities for participants to connect with the global trends as it affect the value chain of the sector.
The fourth edition of the summit and expo, which is scheduled for November 15 and 16, 2021, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, has the theme ‘Tourism Transportation Connectivity: Leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Regime for Economic Sustainability.’
He said this is derived from the AfCFTA trade agreement which is a common market to grow trade in ‘made-in-Africa’ goods and services by reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade among African countries.
Odusanwo said that the AfCFTA is a common market for 54 African countries of a population of 1.2 billion people which has a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of more than $3.4 trillion, huge market opportunity that cannot be ignored.
Odusanwo said: “The summit and expo offer a platform for public and private sector stakeholders, producers and consumers in Nigeria and the Africans to come together, share ideas, experiences, knowledge and showcase their skills in the growth, development and promotion of the nation’s economic endowment by leveraging the ideals of the AfCFTA.
“Nigeria’s participation in this year’s event is essentially to get more enlightened and informed on the nitty gritty of the AfCFTA agreements so that the country can fully explore the opportunities and benefits of the trade agreements.
“Also, participation by all key sector players and critical stakeholders in the tourism and transportation segments of the country will open a new page in Africa’s cross-boundary trade for the good of Nigeria and Africa.”
However, Odusanwo explained that because AfCFTA is driven by the need for Nigeria to grow and diversify its export income beyond crude oil export revenue, which has been declining in per capita terms due to the population growth and the global shift away from fossil fuels, tourism offers a preferred sector for Nigeria’s economic diversification with transportation being the most reliable means for this to happen.
The National Transportation Tourism Summit and Expo is instituted and convened by the Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria (ITPN) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Tourism, the Federal Ministry of Transportation as well as the Federal Ministry of Aviation as an annual event that focusses attention on the inter-play and connectivity between tourism and transportation as well as to x-ray how comprehensibly the various stakeholders and key players in the two industries at both public and private sector levels have fared in exploring the enormous opportunities and benefits inherent in synergising them.