The Federal Government has announced plans to establish community museums as part of efforts to ensure that local communities benefit from tourism which will improve the local economy.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the plan on Thursday at the ongoing fourth World UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture in Kyoto, Japan.
According to a statement by Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant to the Minister on media, the minister said that establishing community museums would attract tourists to such communities and the money spent by the tourists would quickly reflect in the local economy.
”In Nigeria, we observed that tourists stay in the big cities when they visit. They visit the museums in the cities where objects gotten from different parts, including the rural areas, are displayed but they hardly go to the rural areas”, the minister was quoted as saying.
”To encourage tourists to visit the rural areas where money spent is quickly reflected in the local economy, we are trying to establish community museums,” said the Minister, who served as one of the panellists at the Ministerial Segment of the conference, dedicated to discussing and exchanging policies and government models impacting the future of cultural tourism.
Mohammed said the government would, in particular, encourage the establishment of palace museums.
”Parts of ancient residencies of traditional rulers and important chiefs are being turned to museums. Thus, we are not limiting museums to big cities. Money spent by tourists while visiting these rustic places stay longer in these areas. Lamido Adamawa now has the Fombina Palace museum, just like the Emir of Potiskum has a palace museum,” he said.
The Minister added that the government, through high-level representation, training of festival managers and the provision of enabling environment, was supporting and promoting festivals and cultural tourism all over the country, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that local communities benefit from such events.
He said that a national calendar of festivals would soon be unveiled to assist tourists who are coming to Nigeria in planning their visits.
Mohammed said that Nigeria had continued to leverage on the areas in which it enjoys comparative advantage, citing music, movies and fashion as some of such areas.
