The National Mirror Committee on Tourism and Related Services, a body charged with the duty of reviewing tourism and related activities technical committee draft documents from the ECOWAS, ARSO, and ISO in order to articulate Nigeria’s position on the subject matter, is set to reposition the Nigerian tourism sector after a successful election and inauguration of its new leadership.
It is expected that through the work of the committee, the Nigerian tourism sector will be repositioned to compete globally using standardization and quality assurance to attract foreign direct investments, tourists and look beyond the one million tourists target that was briefly achieved in 2011.
The new leadership elected and inaugurated after a seamless election that held at the secretariat of the Manufacturers Association Nigeria recently in Lagos, saw stakeholders in the tourism sector, electing Chika Balogun as new chairman, National Mirror Committee on Tourism and Related Services, with Abiola Ogunsanwo as vice. Balogun is presently the director-general, National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism.
The committee was inaugurated shortly after the election. However, the election also offered a forum for formal exchange between tourism stakeholders present and the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) aimed at standardizing and making the tourism sector internationally competitive to drive economic development and increase the county’s GDP. The forum was initiated by SON on the theme: Standard Catalyst for Hospitality Business. In view of the present economic realities in the country, the stakeholders strongly advocated that serious attention should be paid to tourism by government at all levels and private sector, especially through consistent policy implementation.
With the dwindling global oil price, they urged government to develop tourism as alternative source of revenue. “The current drop in the government revenue following the fall of crude oil price is enough reason for the government to look inwards to diversify the nation’s economy with tourism as the lowest hanging fruit. As Nigeria diversifies its economy from oil, tourism and its related activities can be the game changers for foreign exchange earnings, job creation, infrastructure development and business” they argued.
In his address, Paul Anyga, acting director general, SON, represented by Abiola Akomolafe, director standards in the organisation, said the committee would provide the inputs that would turn around (through research and education) the fortunes of the Nigerian tourism sector to stimulate the country’s economy.
“This committee provides an opportunity to enhance our knowledge of tourism and related activities to grow the Nigeria economy through participation in regional and global standardisation activities, especially now that we are looking for alternate sources of revenue to oil and gas.” Anyga explained.
Anyga noted that the 2015 edition of the Annual Report on Competitiveness in Travel and Tourism, released by the World Economic Forum indicated that West Africa occupies the back seat when it comes to the travel sector, pointing out that Nigeria has fallen below since 2011 after it passed the threshold of one million international tourists in the country.
He attributed the poor performance of the tourism sector in West Africa to limited accessibility in terms of airline traffic, shortage of quality accommodation options; skilled staff, inadequate service and production standards required for competing at international market, security concerns, political frailty, health threats and terrorism.
Anyga, stressed that despite the challenges of tourism, standardization of the various tourism activities and products remains critical in the development and growth of the sector in the West African region, though its implementation has been plagued with a lot of controversies, hence there is need for urgent review.
He urged the stakeholders to provide long-term support for the meeting of the committee made up of intellectuals, while SON is officially recognized as the secretariat and is accountable for effective administration of the position of the committee.
The inauguration was attended by government representatives from agencies including: Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Customs Service, expatriates and other players who suggested pragmatic ways to move the tourism sector forward considering its huge economic benefits.
Giving her acceptance speech, Chika Balogun, expressed gratitude to the stakeholders for electing her as Chairman of the committee and pledged her commitment to service for growth and development of tourism sector.
In an interview, Balogun said, she acknowledged the economic potential of the tourism sector and called for action to tap into its abundant opportunities to grow the nation’s GDP.
She tasked tourism agents to standardize their products so as to bring them to global competitiveness for increased profit making. “There will be increased patronage of tourism provided the services are satisfactory.” Balogun encouraged.
“I do not want to speak about the challenges anymore. Everybody knows what the challenges are. What is needed is serious implementation of action plans on tourism at all levels of the government. I want to encourage stakeholders in the value chains of the tourism to speed up their acts so that very soon tourism as a business will begin to contribute to our GDP”, she concluded.
Beyond reviewing tourism and related activities, the Committee can initiate other indigenous tourist activities and tourism products for regional and global standardization using the approved standardization process in SON.
Obinna Emelike
