Mr Brian Efa, Founder, Nigeria Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference (NHTIC) says Nigeria’s tourism sector can generate massive employment, if the right policies are implemented.
Efa, who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos State on Tuesday, said that Nigeria’s tourism sector was yearning for investment.
He said that implementing tourism-friendly policies would unlock the myriad of business opportunities in the industry.
The NHTIC founder, who said that tourism was a massive employer of labour all over the world, added however that “opportunities in the sector can only be thrown open with the right policies.
“The array of businesses and services that are unveiled when the tourism sector is on stream are many, all of them are employment generators.
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“You can imagine that a particular tourist must pass through travel agents, tour operators, boarding of aircraft, taxi service, hotels, tour guides, shopping, laundry and so on,” he said.
Efa further stated that the chain of businesses that could emerge from a well groomed tourism industry was capable of attracting foreign investment.
“It is unfortunate that governments at all levels do not take tourism seriously, they forget that for every one million tourists, one million opportunities will be created.
“We have so much confidence in oil but we fail to realise that oil does not sustain any country that has a population of more than 10 million persons, because the opportunities are minimal,” he said.
He said Nigeria should copy from very rich countries of the world, adding that “none of them depend on oil but tourism.”
Efa also urged the three tiers of government to increase the budgetary allocations for the tourism industry and evolve sound policy framework toward developing the sector. (NAN)
