Nigeria Identified As Emerging Big Tourism Market

As Nigerian government strives to diversify economy, the Managing Partner, Jonel Hospitality consulting, Brian Efa has identified the tourism industry as a focal point for government to look at.

Speaking with The Guardian in an interview, he said, “The tourism industry is largely undeveloped, but has huge potentials.”

Efa who doubles as the organizer of the Nigeria Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference (NHTIC) 2015, said the three-day conference which is set to hold between November 25th and 27th at the Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos, is geared at “promoting foreign directs and local investment in tourism and hospitality sector”.

This year’s theme is “Nigerian Tourism Industry, Catalyst for Economic Diversification”.

He said, 80 per cent of people who attended the 2014 tourism conference in Ethiopia identified Nigeria as the next tourism big market, with huge potentials.

“In Nigeria, we have only harness less than 20 per cent of the sector, I see tourism not as just a gateway of opportunity in Nigeria, but also a catalyst for economic diversification, which is obviously the theme for this year’s conference.

“We quite agree that this sector have to be developed at state levels, but every where in the world were tourism is striving, there is a conscious efforts by government to develop the sector”.

The conference plans to look at the growth of the sector in other parts of Africa and the world in relation to Nigeria, as well as address how to fund the sector, “It will also talk to state governments to understand what they have been doing, and how we can be of help”.

He expressed regrets concerning the low patronage of domestic tourism by Nigerians, “and that is why we are focusing on improving domestic tourism”.