NTDC DG unveils ‘CHIEF’ to develop, promote domestic tourism

In a bid to strategically reposition the tourism industry in Nigeria to be activities driven and viable to empower, create jobs and generate substantial revenue for the federal, state, local and the drivers of the industry (tourism stakeholders), the Director-General, Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mr Folarin Cokerhas unveiled a five point action plan named CHIEF.
Made available at the launching of the brand campaign to promote Nigeria, Tour Nigeria, in Lagos, recently, the DG NTDC explained that the CHIEF PLAN is designed to promote domestic tourism and encourage ease of doing business in Nigeria.
According to Coker, “We must develop new ways of making tourism working by partnering with people that can work effectively through their expertise to bring innovative and workable ideas to grow the tourism industry.
“We are looking at private sector initiative that would focus on tourism as a viable industry because we have the products. Also considering Nigeria bank’s interest rate, it is too high for the industry players to access. So we are looking at making Tourism Intervention Fund or Tourism Development Fund a reality for the stakeholders to access.
“ We have to look for different ingredients to make things work and in this direction, we going to use our population as a comparative advantage as well as the big picture of Pan African to drive the goals.
Coker who acknowledged the importance of Nigeria population in the context of tourism patronage said the country is proudly the most populous black nation on Earth, home to the second largest film industry on the globe, whilst also being the fashion, technological and creative hub in Africa.
“In line with our agenda to promote domestic and regional tourism, the ‘Tour Nigeria brand was conceived to drive domestic consumption of our tourism assets and products, create new channels of tourism markets, add to the nation’s GDP, create employment, and increase spending in the economy.
“To quicken growth in our tourism industry, we have prepared a Tourism Development Road Map with short, medium and long-term objectives.
We have also agreed on a strategic 5-point Action Plan to innovate our tourism and improve service delivery and effectiveness in critical sectors of the industry.
“The acronym for the strategic 5-point Action Plan to grow the industry is ‘CHIEF,’ which represents Corporate Governance & Regulations, Human Capital Development, Infrastructural Development, Events and Marketing, and Finance & Investment.
“The key components to tourism are travel, accommodation and entertainment/hospitality. They would be explored with airlines, hotels, car hire services, tour operators and others to bring out affordable package tours to encourage Nigerians to tour Nigeria,” Coker added.
The NTDC boss, however said that there is need for conscious investment in the promotion of domestic tourism thereby appealing to stakeholders in the tourism value chain at the Federal, State, Local governments and the private sector to work together and be ready to drive the market with the Tour Nigeria brand.
He revealed that a unique brand logo was created as a marketing tool, adding that the agency have registered and patented the logo at the Trademark Registry.
“To create further public awareness for the brand, the Corporation will embark on a “Tour Nigeria” Bus Tour from the first week of August. The itinerary will take us across the six geo-political zones of the country. This will deepen our reach, create awareness of the huge possibilities of tourism as a major revenue and employment generator, whilst generating goodwill and support for the brand.
“The brand launch is the first of a series of monthly events to promote the best of Nigeria. Other events are scheduled to take place across the Federation and it will peak with the year ending Countdown Nigeria” celebration.
“We have designed and populated our calendar of events with unique festivals and events that cut across the various entertainment channels of food, music, sports, religion, fashion and cultural festivals.
Activities to herald the event have commenced and the official launch will take place on July 29th, 2017.”