One of the reasons that tourism in Nigeria does not seem to be making as much impact is due to its narrow confinement as a limited department of government, when it can become its own policy-making engine room that coordinates a “whole-of-government” approach, in which all levels of government are made to share a vision of the direction and goals of tourism policy-making and implementation.
Or is it the immense crossover appeal of Tiwa Savage, Flavour Nabania, Rema, P-Square, Yemi Alade, Patoranking or Olamide and his YBNL associates? Some of these artists have taken Nigerian street culture into the affluent spaces of Western high culture, and beyond. Consequently, our fashion and culinary industries have become the darlings of many across the African continent and the wider world.
The related advertising, radio and television industry is noted as yielding turnovers in excess of N500 billion per year, from more than 10,000 businesses, engaging more than 500,000 people directly. While the writing, printing and publishing industry has witnessed annual revenues of about N1 trillion from 3,000 businesses and 15,000 active practitioners.
Also, the Ministry is one whose interventions offer major prospects for the advancement of our rural communities, where a lot of our tourist sites are located. In Nigeria, with an estimated population of over 200 million people, having 222 million active internet subscriptions and a teledensity of almost 116%, we have a readymade and vast domestic market for tourism.
Furthermore, as a significant dimension of this, there is the need to establish a Tourism Satellite Account /Tourism Information Management System that would capture tourism related data for coordinated nationwide planning and development.