Johnson Folarin
In the wake of calls to create a separate Ministry for Tourism, Federal Government has been urged to ignore some self-acclaimed tourism promoters whose major business is pontificating.
In a paper submitted by Prince Adebanji Adelusi in response to the vociferous condemnation of the merger of tourism with Arts and Culture under a Ministry, Adelusi opined that “those who propose the creation of independent Ministry for Tourism as a solution to solving its underdevelopment problems are yet to come to realization that tourism as an activity can only survive and fly on the wings of other human activities”.
According to him “tourism is never for tourism sake. Tourism is either for leisure or business, for medical or for conference etc.”
Adelusi, who is an alumnus of the National Institute of Hospitality Tourism (NIHOTOUR), Abuja, explained that “in Nigeria, without the tolerance and impetus of culture and arts, tourism performance would be at sub-optimal level”
He said the assertion was, by no means, ” aimed at undervaluing the role of other factors in promoting tourism.
Today we have cultural tourism in which tourism gets driven by local and traditional festivals; we have religious tourism in which different faiths, by their various programmes, activate traffic of humans to and from a particular destination; we also have situations whereby people travel to a destination to watch and participate in arts and crafts events as leisure and recreational activities, Adelusi said.
No tourist travels for tourism’s sake except to savour the content available at such destinations they intend to travel to.
Adelusi, who is a journalist and also the current Director of Tourism in Ekiti State, however advised that stakeholders should continue to advocate that government should create an environment that is optimally conducive for tourism to thrive through the strengthening of security, provision infrastructures, review of wages and work policy as well as making effective efforts to enhance the value of naira.
Adelusi explained that he was not averse to the call for improvement in the Nigeria’s tourism sector but condemned the manner with which some self-aclaimed tourism promoters down-rate the achievements of the sector which is less than 20 years while comparing it with those of countries where tourism has always been the mainstay of their economy.
The Ado-Ekiti Prince in his paper decried the level of mediocrity and ignorance among those who postulate theories and suggest policy actions for government on social media. He also congratulated Ekiti tourism stakeholders for keeping the sector alive and moving.
Ekiti Tourism & Hospitality News 