Why tourism development must go beyond lip service

One of the foremost edutourism promoters in Nigeria and combo tour packager has urged the federal, state and local government to see tourism as an economic driver sector that has the potential to give human face solution to the problem of joblessness and poor revenue generation.

The Managing Director/CEO of Dvine Travels and Tour, Mr Olumuyiwa Salami said in an interview with Travelpulse&MICE in Ibadan, recently said most of the government promises on tourism development are mainly lip services while the industry as a practical one has gone beyond white lie.

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Salami who picked on the endless fine tuning of the Tourism Master Plan which have undergone review, times without number in the last two decades, said that the authorities who have the mandate to making things happen have refused to do it or better put, lack the technicality, exposure and strategic human capacity to translate the paper work into action.

“From one government to another, it has been review upon reviews followed by grammar and lips service and at the end of the day it will forgotten on the shelve until another government comes in and the media or private stakeholder brings it up. This case of TMP has been an age long headache for the Federal Government.

Enough is enough, we want people with not only political goodwill to change the story of tourism in Nigeria for the better, but also bring onboard  people that know and have what it takes to bring life to the tourism industry.”

Salami who was not happy with the low pace of tourism in Nigeria even when there are lots of committed private stakeholders who have been using there time and money to push the tourism campaign in the country said the government in all level have to align with the private sector through public and Private sector Partnership (PPP) to develop and promote sustainable tourism.

“No doubt, it is not news that it is a money-spinning sector with multiplier effect of the people, but this will not come on a platter of gold without doing the first thing first.

“We have what it takes to become tourism power but it cannot not just happen through lip service but by putting all our plans into action. We must get our policy thrust right, our legislations must be perfect and we get the right people to strategically implement the tourism plan.

“The government in all level must declare state of emergency on tourism development with available tourism satellite account and task force to monitor the implementation process for we to have a workable tourismIndustry.

“Also we, as the private sector must come together as one voice irrespective of the branch of tourism we operate from, because we must not forget that tourism sector has a value chain which means that one aspect depend on the other to succeed.