NAN-ELS-4
Tourism
By Taiye Baiyerohi
Lagos, Sept. 27, 2017 (NAN) Some tourism stakeholders on Wednesday called for Federal Government’s attention to the tourism industry, which they described as evergreen but untapped.
The stakeholders told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Lagos that the tourism industry was lagging behind when compared to some other sectors, due to negligence.
According to the tourism practitioners, government’s visible attention should be seen and felt in areas such as the renovation of heritage sites, easy visa procurement for intending visitors and tourists as well as solving insecurity.
NAN reports that the theme for 2017 World Tourism Day is: “Sustainable Tourism, a Tool For Development “.
Mr Ayo Olumoko, the National Deputy President of Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) urged the government to help the people to develop community activities that were related to culture.
Olumoko advised the government to look into the multiple taxation problems, to make the tourism business more attractive to the stakeholders.
“Government must wake up to its responsibilities to ensure that Nigerian tourism gets a boom, in areas of multiple taxation and developing community’s activities, that have to do with culture.
“The visa policy must be relaxed and well-guided; tourists should be able to get their visas on arrival at the airport,” he said.
Also, Dr Omatshola Iseli, a renowned musician popularly known as Tee Mac, said that there was a great need for tourism revolution; hence, the government should work on security and visa fraud.
“We can be the number one country in the world because we have the most diverse cultures.
“These cultures are not developed, and insecurity must be a thing of the past if tourism must strive,” he said.
Similarly, Mr Lekan Ajirotutu, the Public Relations Officer of Association of African Traditional Religion of Nigeria (AATREN) asked the government to renovate historical sites that had gone bad.
Ajirotutu said: “Our heritage sites are not inviting at all; government needs to renovate these sites before we can talk of attracting international tourists.
“Roads leading to our tourist sites are bad and must be rehabilitated”.
The Chairman, Universal Studio of Arts, Mr Bunmi Babatunde, urged the government to involve professionals in the development of arts, culture and tourism, to ensure their visible growth.
He said that government had always paid lip service to grooming tourism.
Babatunde said that the sector required investment in infrastructure which ought to be in place before the private individuals could invest in it.
“Government must involve professionals who know about the industry, novice must be removed to enable it to strive,” he said. (NAN)
PTB/FLP/PAD
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Edited by Folorunso Poroye/Peter Dada