Minister urges stakeholders to harness opportunities in tourism sector

The  Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John, has urged stakeholders and investors to harness various opportunities in the tourism sector for the benefits of Nigerians.

Ade-John made the call during an interview with journalists during the week in Abuja.

According  to her, opportunities and potentials in the sector are limitless and,  if well tapped,  will contribute immensely to the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) of the country.

While calling for partnership with the investors,  the minister noted that  there were over 2,500 tourist sites yet to be harnessed which investors could  leverage on.

“We have an agency, Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA),  they are the implementers. They are actually the warehouse of all the tourist locations even though they are in the states.

“So, it is not only about the government managing these sites,  but through ‘Public Private Partnership’, the sites can be developed and managed for the benefit of all,” she said.

She emphasised the need  for citizens to change their mindset towards the sector,  especially when it seems to them as  if the government abandoned the area, in order to turnaround the fortune of the sector.

“But these are difficult times. We are hoping that in the next year or so,  things will improve so that we can embrace accommodating our visitors.

“We want to ensure that we have the right standards to streamline the industry, as well as  ensuring it is structured in a way we  have our databases for our data and information.

“The database will help our organisation to provide our investors and Nigerians abroad with the necessary information about the tourism industry when they demand certain statistics.

“Even though the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics have some information, but we are still working on the database,” she  added.

He also expressed  the need for  organisations to create websites that would display information about the sectors, saying different ministries had their websites.

“We want to work to offer our children, especially those children in diaspora different tourist sites we have in the country. We want to have visual reality tours.

“So you use the computer to view. You can take a trip through visual reality to Obudu, to Yankari, to Mambilla Plateau, and that will encourage them to come and see and feel and be part of the real thing.

“These are what we plan to do in future. We cannot do everything at the same time,” he added.

 He further disclosed that they were working with the Osun State Governor, Gov. Ademola Adeleke, to have a music festival this year since Davido came from the state.

“Also, we are working with two other partners on an African Music Festival, because we want to celebrate music from around Africa  hopefully in Abuja,” he stressed