Project Tourism will bring 1000 foreign tourists to Nigeria —Ned Nwoko

Chairman, Project Tourism Committee and former Member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Ned Nwoko, in an interview with Wale Ojo-Lanre discusses the project and how it intends to revamp tourism and hospitality industry in Nigeria.

What Project Tourism is about

According to Honourable Nwoko, Project Tourism is designed to revamp the Nigerian tourism industry through its four cardinal aspects – Grand Tourism Award (National Tourism Honours Award); Host Family Show; Global Road Show, and Culture Village.

“The Grand Tourism Award is designed to honour and encourage outstanding achievement in all areas of the Tourism Value Chain, covering, but not limited to media, stakeholders (federal, states and local governments), sports, entertainment, practitioners, investments, partners, promoters and hotel owners.

“The award aims at promoting growth and development of tourism in Nigeria, attracting investment, participating and expanding of the industry as Nigeria’s key economic sector and foreign revenue-spinner. The award would be given to participating individuals, corporate bodies and celebrities, among others.”

On the host family scheme, the former member of the Federal House of Representatives, said: “The aim is to promote tourism by capturing and satisfying specific tourism interests and feeling at home, even when not at home. It will be a compendium of who is who in Nigeria; home away from home; twinning of towns and school camps. It will also be used as a source of information for potential tourists to Nigeria and host families to have matching interests with prospective tourists.”

Honourable Nwoko, a tourism aficionado said about the global road show that it would be an exhibition of the tourism assets of the country, where manufacturers, government agencies, states and local government areas, leading business men/women, hoteliers, airlines, transporters, entrepreneurs can showcase their tourism products and potentials to local and international communities.

The road show, which according to Nwoko would be staged with notable Nollywood, Sports stars and celebrities from Nigeria on parade, would create room for meeting with potential investors in tourism, while it would be rotated among states in Nigeria, countries in Europe, America and Asia, among others, to encourage traffic into Nigeria.

On culture village, Nwoko said: “It would identify and establish one acknowledged hub of culture tourism. The centre will build on already established/existing monuments, arts and sites. It will feature one culture village in every state across the country, while village or city to be selected for the culture village must currently have natural or acknowledged monuments, historical sites and arts. The location of tourism assets must be accessible. This is to encourage growth of tourism in Nigeria, using cultural contents.”

Nwoko’s love for tourism

My love for tourism is natural. More so, I get fascinated the more, having travelled to almost every part of the world. Tourism is life. It cuts across the spectrum of life. We all practise tourism at various times of our lives. There is hardly any society today where tourism is not appreciated. Aside the economic importance of tourism to nations all over the world, in most cases as the main fiscal earner to countries like Britain, France, Japan and China, just to mention a few. With all the technological advancement tourism is still number one in America, even in Australia, Morocco, Ethiopia, South Africa and many other countries in Africa. They don’t have oil, but tourism. Apart from the economic benefit, you can also talk about the therapeutic benefit of tourism. There is nothing as important as one’s life itself. And tourism helps one’s prolong and enrich one’s life through relaxation.

Tourism development and promotion in Nigeria

Tourism industry in Nigeria needs effective awareness, deliberately created to encourage Nigerians and foreigners to patronise tourist destinations we have in Nigeria. Every player in this sector – the policy makers, media, hotel owners, transporters, tour operators and hospital workers, among others – must deliberately be made to understand  and appreciate the need to create awareness about the industry. There are piece and pieces of tourism potentials in virtually every locality. But there has never been a concerted effort at one, creating the awareness; two, promoting it; three commercialising it, and four, sustaining it.

Mr President has a role to play

The President has a major role to play.  I will talk to the President, discourage him from travelling abroad for medicals, medication, vacations. It is said, “Charity begins at home.” The President should become our number one promoter of tourism, not only by words, but by deeds. He must live by example. He must address Nigerians, saying “Yes, oil is good; Agriculture is fine, but Tourism is it! Tourism is it because oil is peculiar to few places, even agriculture may not be done everywhere, but tourism concerns everybody. This is the only sector that has everybody – the taxi driver, okada riders, singers, Nollywood, the stars, petty traders, hoteliers. That awareness must consciously be created and propagated by the President. There has to be fanfare introduction. I am sure he knows the importance and the potentials of tourism.

Tourism rests squarely with the President and he must consciously drive it. He  can invite his colleagues from all over the world to holiday with him in Obudu Cattle Ranch for instance, and for his next holiday Yankari Games Reserves, instead of the President staying here in Abuja. Even if the President’s colleagues come from any part of the world to Nigeria for convention, meeting or the other, part of the programme to go through should be to visit one tourist site or the other. This can pull traffic of up to 300 people to the community. You can imagine the effect of this on the tourist site, the community where the site is located, the hotel around the site would surely record full bookings, even the road that leads to the site must be fixed, while good security should be put in place. These are the preparation for a boom in this sector. Before you know it, Nigerians and even foreigners would begin to talk about tourist destinations in Nigeria, and the growth of these locations would start in earnest.

The ministers, senators, governors, directors, would then follow him. This would open up the tourist sites, and then, tourism would boom in Nigeria.

Effect of Project Tourism on Nigeria’s tourism industry

All the spheres of the project will create the needed awareness the Nigeria’s tourism industry needed to boom.  The four programmes will bring over a thousand tourists to Nigeria . The Grand Tourism Award, for instance, will encourage both the private and the public tourism stakeholders to be more committed to developing and promoting the industry. While the Global Road Show, like I said earlier, would exhibit the tourism assets of the country, and will also serve as a good platform for manufacturers, government agencies, states and local government, leading business men/women, hoteliers, airlines, transporters, entrepreneurs to showcase their tourism products and potentials to local and international community. The project would also develop and open up all the states in the federation, since the roadshow, for instance, will be rotated among states in Nigeria, and it will drive traffic into Nigeria.

The Future of Project Tourism in Nigeria

In the next five years, I honestly believe that the President would have taken the lead in exploring the Nigerian tourism, while governors, senators in the country would have followed to play the role Mr President is playing, making tourist sites venues for government business discussion and hosting of foreign and local public office holders’ friends and visitors.

Also, the project would have been well established with everybody talking about it, because we would have worked hard enough to create the awareness about tourism in Nigeria.

NTDC and Project Tourism

The project is in collaboration with NTDC, being the apex tourism body in Nigeria. NTDC appreciates the project, having seen the great potentials in it and its viability to revamp tourism in Nigeria.

National Assembly and tourism development and promotion

The laws have to be looked into, to favour tourism in Nigeria. There must be policy statement on this which they must back up. Note that, National Assembly is not just about making laws; they work with the President and the Governors.

Driving and funding of the project

This is my contribution. I am doing it because I see the potentials in tourism and I understand the importance of this sector, just like I believe many people do. And I believe people of like minds would come in to financially back the project. They would do so at the right time. If the President is leading the campaign, which he should, and the Governors and Senators are following suit, the private sector coming in and invest in tourism, it will be well developed and promoted in Nigeria.

To Nigerians…

Time has come for us to become focused on tourism development and everybody must participate. It is a national revolution that must happen. It is happening now. We need the President, the National Assembly, the Governors, and the key players in the private sector – hotel owners, transport owners, tour operator, and airliners, among others. Tourism must be part of academic curriculum in Nigeria.