Tourism development & Sustainability; Nigeria not keen?

The fact that the field of tourism is fast becoming one of the finest economy boosting space in the world, and a country like Nigeria hasn’t quite understood the need to leverage on this reality is quite worrisome and preposterous.

Several youths in the country have managed to see to it that various tourism related activities and gigs are being put together, some to good effect, others sadly fall apart due to lack of support or interest from prospective clients.

The aftermath of that being that most of the planned tour gigs end up falling by the way side like a pack of cards. And the state of the country is to be thanked for this unkind gesture.

For starters, it is understandable that most people do not overly see the need to subscribe to fun trips_ unsafe clime, poor roads and infrastructures, shallow purses and other factors culminating to this. However, even those in appropriate quarters who are saddled with the responsibilities of ensuring that people are well sensitized about the need to take breaks from work, at least one in a year and most importantly giving them incentives in the form of breathers such as traveling for leisure and other tour related activities unfortunately do not see the need for it.

It’s still a long way to go, and it only saddens to see that countries such a Kenya, Gambia, Cape Verde, South Africa and some others are fast rising via tourism and by extension boosting their economies in the process while Nigeria remains lurked behind by insecurity, corruption, biase and other factors that has held back the growth of tourism in the country.

Consequently, if there’s any call to snap out of this conundrum, then we have to start by putting the right pegs in the correct holes. Perhaps if entities with keen interest and understanding of the field are made to take worthy positions at the helms, while also sensitizing the populace and putting other measures such as security, maintainance structures and the likes in place, just then_maybe tourism will fare better than it is at the moment.

But the question that begs for answers is; Is Nigeria ready or even keen on the development of tourism? When will these resourceful youths pushing to get tourism the needed recognition be recognized themselves, like “truly” recognized?

Apparently we are not fully ready for this discussion, but mayhaps if these pending questions get the needed answers, just maybe then we all can agree that the scales are gradually falling from our eyes.