Otunba Segun Runsewe, the Director-General of National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), has urged tour operators to ensure synergy for the purpose of developing a viable tourism sector.
Runsewe made the call at the inauguration of the FCT Chapter of the Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP), on Thursday in Abuja.
He advised the newly certified tour operators to shun undue rivalry, so as to take tourism business in the country to greater heights.
According to him, tourism business can grow fast if the operators collaborate effectively for their ultimate success in the sector.
“Proper packaging of tour is needed in Nigeria to be able to explore its potentials because what makes tourism anywhere in the World is packaging.
“Nigeria tourism is just waking up and anytime you wake up can be your morning,” he said.
Runsewe said that culture was a product that could be used to promote tourism, adding that NATOP members must create a well-packaged tour that would attract global attention to the nation’s tourism sector.
The director-general pointed out that lack of awareness is the major problem of tourism in Nigeria, saying that the way forward is what NATOP is doing by bringing more stakeholders together to showcase their products.
“In the next two to three years, our tourism profile in Nigeria will be huge to the amazement of the whole world,” he said.
In his remarks, the NATOP President, Mr Nkereuwem Onung, emphasised the need for the right structures to be put in place for tourism to be optimally developed in Nigeria.
Onung said that NATOP was determined to create a platform that would transform tourism in Nigeria, adding that tour operators would be exposed to series of training with the sole aim of making them professionals.
He said that the nation’s capital had been without a chapter of NATOP even though the association had existed for 25 years, adding that more things needed to be done to promote tourism in the country.
“What we don’t have in Nigeria is pleasure tourism and if the tour operators are encouraged to package pleasurable experience it will help the country.
“That is why we are trying to position the operators to be able to package our tourism for the outside world.
“We also want to know the contributions of tourism to our national gross domestic product (GDP) so that we can know where to start from because currently we don’t know what tourism contributes to GDP,” he said.
Contributing, Mr Ikechi Uko, the Promoter of Akwaaba Africa Travel Market and Tourism, said that Nigeria had huge tourism potentials that needed to be developed by professional operators.
Uko further said that people from outside would need to come to Nigeria to see its brands of entertainment and cultural heritage, so as to generate maximum revenue from tourism.
According to him, tourism and tour operators are two sides of the same coin, adding that there is the need to distinguish travel agents from tour operators.
He said the major responsibility of the NATOP in the FCT would be the training of travel agents who want to engage in tours.
Source: sundiatapost.com
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Well said by the DG Segun Runsewe.
Cultural Tourism using our indigenous assets such as numerous tribes and traditions can bring in vast rewards across the industry.
By Hipo tours executive director.