Nigeria has political will to move tourism forward ---UN Agency
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
leading his delegation to a meeting with the UN World Tourism Organisation, led
by its Secretary-General, Mr. Taleb Rifai, in Madrid, Spain.
The Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Agency, UNWTO, Mr. Taleb Rifai, has hailed the demonstration of political will by the Nigerian government to move tourism forward in the country.
''There is the existence of political will and we can feel
it from outside (the country),'' Mr. Rifai said on Tuesday at the opening of a
two-day meeting with the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, in Madrid, Spain.
''Anyone who is interested in Nigeria will know the positive
development that has taken place (in the country)'' he said, adding that there
is the need to ''tell this story to the world.”
The UNWTO Secretary-General, who noted that tourism
contributes 10 percent of global GDP and creates one out of every 11 jobs,
expressed delight at the opportunity provided by the Minister's visit for the
agency to seriously engage with Nigeria, instead of the ''casual engagements''
which both (UNWTO and Nigeria) has had in the past.
''Nigeria is absolutely very important to us. The success of
Nigeria is positive for the (African) continent and the world,'' he said.
For his part, the Minister briefed the UNWTO
Secretary-General and his delegation on the political, economic and security
situation in Nigeria, saying while the country is going through a tough time,
the government is focused and determined to take it out of its present
predicament.
He said with the defeat of Boko Haram in the North-east and
the ongoing engagement of the militants in the Niger Delta by the federal
government, Nigeria is on top of the security situation in the country.
Alhaji Mohammed said since Culture and Tourism has been
identified as one of the sectors that form the plank of the country's
diversification efforts, there has been a definite move to resuscitate the
President Council on Tourism, PCT, the highest advisory body on tourism in the
country.
The Minister also told the UN agency of his plan to visit
each of the clusters identified in the country's Tourism Master Plan as part of
an overall effort to re-ignite the Master Plan and also encourage domestic
tourism.
He urged the global body to support Nigeria's tourism
development through the provision of technical assistance, especially in the
area of data gathering and processing, as well as capacity building.
''In particular, we are planning capacity building centre
for women in tourism in each of the country's six geo-political zones, because
when you empower women, you empower the society,'' Alhaji Mohammed said, adding
that the assistance of the UNWTO in this regard would be a welcome development.
The Minister, who was accompanied to the meeting by
officials of the Nigerian Embassy in Spain and the Ministry of Information and
Culture, is in Spain at the invitation of the UNWTO Secretary-General,who has
promised to work with Nigeria in designing a programme that can give a fillip
to the development of tourism in Nigeria.
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