With a tourist arrival of 4.033 million and 4.06 million in 2013 and 2014 respectively she said it is important for the private sector to explore and harness the business opportunities in the tourism sector.
Local tourism sector should be driven by the private sector, the director general, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) Sally Mbanefo has said. Mbanefo said this at an exclusive media chat with the members of Association of Travel and Tourism Writers of Nigeria (ATTWON) recently in Lagos.
With a tourist arrival of 4.033 million and 4.06 million in 2013 and 2014 respectively she said it is important for the private sector to explore and harness the business opportunities in the tourism sector.
According to her, poor funding has impeded the growth of tourism in the country as it is currently largely funded by the Federal Government who has more than enough on its plate to deal with.
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“A large chunk of our budget at NTDC goes into payment of salaries,” she said. “At the end of the day, we are left with limited funds to carry out the projects we have itemised to grow the tourism industry. What we need now is a robust private sector participation in the tourism industry. There are times I had to use my personal money to fund some projects including official trips. Already, I am beginning to lose my benevolence with people especially banks who have supported us in the past. They needed to put their money where their mouth is. We cannot continue that way.”
Since she assumed the leadership of NTDC, she said she has met with stakeholders of the industry to discuss the way forward for the growth and development of tourism in Nigeria. Last year, she went on a tour of the six geopolitical zones to experience the numerous tourist attractions in these zones in a bid to encourage private sector participation. Also, Lagos is already being tipped as the headquarter of tourism in Nigeria and it may accommodate NTDC possibly in the nearest future.
In addition, she said in 2015, NTDC worked closely with the ABC Transport Group to test run the open city tour bus in Abuja. But the effort was frustrated by the constant police harassment of tourists who were spotted with cameras taking pictures of the beautiful city on the buses.
“We hope we will be able to take the development of tourism further with the new Minister of Information who supervises our ministry. Part of our plans is to turn wastes into biofuel. We want to start with the city of Abuja. We are already talking with a company to make this happen. This is part of ecotourism. We hope to push for this idea to happen. We have also set up a tourism information desk at NTDC to give information to people who would like to come to Nigeria including travel packages for tourists who would like to visit Nigeria for leisure or business.”
