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| Nigeria’s Minister for Information and Culture Lai Mohammed at the ongoing 22nd General Assembly of United Nations World Tourism Organisations |
Nigeria has chaired the third plenary at the ongoing 22nd General Assembly of United Nations World Tourism Organisations session on Friday in Chengdu, China.
Nigeria’s Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed anchored the session where the UNWTO Secretary General, Mr Talib Rifai gave a report to the Assembly on the international year of sustainable Tourism for Development, 2017 among other presentations.
After the session, Nigeria Senate Committee Chairman on Tourism and Culture, Senator Matthew Orighide said the assumption of Nigeria was crucial to the country’s tourism development.
“UNWTO is an organ of the UN in charge of developing and sustaining tourism across the globe and it is one of the organs that the UN has respect for with countries in excess of 137 as members.
Nigeria, being nominated and accepted as Vice President, has placed the burden on us, we too must come on board to be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the matter of tourism development and sustenance’’.
The senator said that although the country had started placing emphasis on tourism development, more needed to be done by the Federal Government, states and local governments as well as the executive and legislature.
The present minister is showing deep interest and by the virtue of this election as Vice President of UNWTO, it means that he has no option than for Nigeria to live up to the expectation of the international community,’’ he said.
On the take-away from the General Assembly, the senator said he was more convinced that“tourism is one huge area that can earn a lot of revenue for the country.’’
Senator Orighide said there are countries that are completely dependent on tourism like the Caribbean Island and even China which has placed a lot of premium on it.
“This Sichuan Province of Southwest China where we are today, although has a population of 91 million people, what it got from tourism is in excess of 70 billion dollars.
According to the 2016 statistics that was presented, tourism contributed well over 10.6 per cent of the world GDP in excess of over 760 trillion dollars.
“The sector generated employment in excess of 640 billion jobs across the world while tourism export’s global contribution was 40 per cent,’’ he added.
He said that within West Africa, tourism contributed 14 per cent to the economy of the Gambia, whereas Nigeria was still grappling with about 1.3 per cent.
“What this means is that we have to go back and address the issue of tourism by utilising our rich and huge potentials,’’ he said.
He said from the sessions of the Assembly, it was obvious that the perceived problems militating against the development of tourism in the country were not peculiar.
“Talking of infrastructure deficit, security, even the developed countries have come out to say that they have the same problems yet they are advancing tourism,’’ he said.
The lawmaker said the conference had also underscored the need for the country to urgently review its visa policy to ensure tourists do not go through hardship to obtain visa.
Nigeria was elected on Wednesday as one of the Vice Presidents of the UNWTO General Assembly alongside Cape Verde to represent Africa for a two year term.
VON.
