During an interaction with some travel journalists The President of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), Nigeria’s foremost federation for private sector tourism business practitioners, Mr. Nkereuwm Onung has questioned the wisdom behind the decision of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture headed by Alhaji Lai Mohammed to accept hosting another United Nation World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) meeting this year, the second during his tenure as minister.
According to africatravelherald.com, He said it has become necessary for the ministry to educate industry stakeholders and the nation on the benefits as the meeting this year is the second during the tenure of the minister.
He asked how Nigeria will benefit from hosting the UNWTO programme and its impact on the Nigerian tourism development.
He said: “Like today, we are talking about hosting the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the second time in four years.
The question we will ask is that what is the benefit to our country? ”
On the UNWTO supervised National Tourism Master-plan and the inability of the government implement, the FTAN President said: “Okay, just like the tourism master plan, in 2016, a committee was set up. I think I was the president of NATOP and I attended that meeting, so what exactly has happened?
“Now, the same UNWTO that was part of that is now coming to Nigeria twice in four years. What exactly are supposed to be the benefit from it? If we don’t speak out at that level, it will be like anybody can throw anything at us and we take it. It will not be a fight, but it will be proper education and engagements.
It will be like this is what it means to host UNWTO. This is the benefit that we should have. Did we have it? If we don’t ask those questions, anybody will think that oh, he can boasts and tell us that it is our achievement. If by now, we cannot even thinker on the tourism master-plan for the country that means there is something wrong.”
However, when Africa Travel Herald contacted one of the aides to the Information and Culture Ministers, Mr. Segun Adeyemi, he said: “No, we are not hosting another UNWTO CAF meeting. What we are hosting this year is the Global Conference on Culture and Creative Industries Arts from Africa and other regions of the organisation.”
However, reacting to this explanation, the FTAN President said: “What is the benefit of the hosting to us? Why are we the ones spending money to host when we have things around the environment that has not been done? Why are you spending money hosting things that does not benefit us? What is the relevance to the industry and its growth? Those are the questions we are asking. Our interaction with the UNWTO has not benefitted us. I was part of the committee in 2016 which was supposed to deliver the tourism master-plan. it has been abandoned. It is the same minister that was in charge.
We have not heard anything till now. There is no report. Nigeria has not master-plan. We tied it to the UNWTO; you are now hosting their conference. You have hosted CAF. What is the interest? These are the questions.
