Ignorance – A Militating Factor against Nigerian Tourism

Published- Financial Standard, October 20, 2003. p.8

After spending much time following the programmes of such foreign television stations as SABC Africa, I was stunned to discover that they have over eight programmes a week that deal with subjects as tourism, travels and cultures in South Africa. This shows that awareness is one major factor must be promoted in the business of developing and sustaining tourism in a country.

In a country like ours, where the average man doesn’t even know what his locality has in terms of natural endowments, it is no news that such a country’s tourism industry is staggering in limbo. Of course we know that the government cannot do everything to develop the industry, the private sector also has its own job to do; but how will the average Nigerian business man help when he doesn’t even know the various tourist potentials Nigeria has.
The potential tourism industry of Nigeria will certainly grow and boom even if the government will just do nothing else but simple make us aware of what we have, what has been developed and what needs conservation and development.
It is ignominious to have indigenous television stations and newspaper publishers that feature few or no slots that promote tourism within the Nigerian enclave. We must understand that no external media will come and promote these tourist attractions for us: neither CNN, BBC, SABC Africa, DISCOVERY CHANNEL, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL etc. nor even Ghanaian television stations will do the job for us. So, why waste our time waiting for others to promote or market our tourism industry for us.
Therefore I urge the government at the various levels (Federal, State and local governments), and especially the various media outlets within the country to make viable plans and take all actions necessary to vivify these wonderful tourist attractions our nation, Nigeria, has to offer, through the elimination of ignorance on the part of the citizens.

Nigeria, Tourism