The Founder and President of La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, Otunba Wanle Akinboboye, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to focus on making Nigeria tourism competitive, as it has the potential to rival other sectors. In an open letter he wrote to the President, he commended the creation of a stand-alone Ministry of Tourism. To him, “this was a drastic departure from your predecessor, who since 2015 had merged responsibility for tourism with responsibility for ‘culture’ and ‘national orientation.
” This, he noted is despite the chequered history of tourism, with the previous administrations relegating it to the background, while also canvassing for it retention going forward. He disclosed, “as a tourism practitioner of over 40 years experience and having built from scratch, La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, a world-renowned African tourism facility; when you first assumed office, I was particularly excited when you correctly identified tourism as a possible game changer in terms of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and employment of youths.” He added: “I must, however, admit that I was a little skeptical about your commitment to growing the Nigerian tourism industry based on the actions of your predecessors, all of whom, at various times, acknowledged the role of tourism in growing our economy but frankly did little or nothing to put in place a framework to actually develop a viable tourism industry for Nigeria.
” He expressed delight over the.
