NAN-H-43
Brand
By Idris Olukoya
Lagos, Sept. 26, 2016 (NAN) Mr Ini Akpabio, the Group Managing Director, NANET Hotel and Suites, Abuja, on Monday, called for a unique tourism brand to reposition the nation’s tourism industry.
Akpabio told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on telephone that Nigeria lacked the brand that could attract the desired volume of tourism clientele.
“Tourism practitioners prefer to promote and market their own state tourism potential.
“There is the need to identify a particular tourism potential in the nation to showcase to the world,” he said.
He cited Kenya for instance, that promotes its wild-life potential to the world, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirate that promotes Architectural tourism.
Akpabio also cited France, South Africa, the UK, the U.S., Japan, China and Italy, as examples of countries that used their unique selling points to showcase their tourism potential.
“There is the need for the country to have a particular tourism point that could be promoted to attract foreign tourists.
“There are lots of tourism potential in Nigeria but we cannot promote everything together, we need to have a particular one that the country will be known for,” he said.
Akpabio noted that there was the need for Nigerians to think of tourism as a new frontier through which the nation’s economy could be repositioned.
He advised the relevant authorities to organise activities that would boost the influx of tourists into the country to boost the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.
“Efforts must be made to appoint core professionals to drive the sector,” he added. (NAN)
SIO/AAO/ERO/YEMI
Edited by Emmanuel Okara
Yemi Idris-Aduloju