Mr Michael Balogun, Chief Executive Officer, Tour2Nigeria, on Saturday urged the Federal Government to rehabilitate roads leading to most tourists’ sites in Nigeria which were in deplorable state.
Balogun gave the advice in Lagos during Hospitalitea 4.0, organised by Women in Hospitality in Nigeria (WIHN), with the theme “Leveraging Local Experiences for Hospitality and Tourism Growth in Nigeria”.
He said the deplorable state of most roads was a discouraging factor to local and international tourists.
According to him, another challenge confronting tourism and hospitality growth is lack of patriotism by Nigerians toward visiting local tourists’ sites and buying local products generally.
“The greatest problem with tourism and hospitality growth in Nigeria is lack of patriotism on the path of Nigerians to local products and sites.
“Also, lack of adequate infrastructure to drive tourism, most of our roads are not accessible, government need to wade into this while Nigerians consciously take pride in local tourism products.
“The road leading to Badagry is still not encouraging for tourists to visit the coconut town and a lot of tourists’ sites like that.
“Nigerians complain of low standard parks and recreational centres without thinking of their contributions toward the growth of the industry,” he said.
Also, Nnenna Fakoya-Smith, Founder, Nene-Uwa Hub, called on each state government to engage the services of celebrities and social influencers to market Nigeria as a tourism destination of choice to local and international tourists.
Fakoya-Smith urged Nigerians generally to take pride in local products, sites and take conscious efforts in marketing Nigeria as a tourism destination.
Clara Okoro, Founder, My Beautiful Africa, said that government needed to put the right policies in place to boost tourism as well as engage in branding and rebranding.
“We need to be intentional about tourism growth, take conscious steps toward doing that,” she said.(NAN)
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