STELLA OMONA Nigerians have been charged to rise up and invest heavily in the tourism industry to change the narrative and boost the nation’s economy. Specifically, the stakeholders have been charged to look inward as domestic tourismis six times bigger than that of the international. Overtime, international tourism has been the attraction, but recent times have shown that domestictourism has more potential than that of the international if properly harnessed.
While international tourismgenerates money for these foreign countries at the detriment of the nation, investing seriously in domestic tourism will boost and strengthen our infrastructure and the purchasing power of the naira. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Daily Independent on the importance of investing in domestic tourism, the Director General of Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA), Mr, Folorunsho Coker, enumerates the gains and the opportunities of investing in the sector. He pointed out that tourismremains a leading sector in world trade and one of the fastest growing industries and Nigeria needs to position its tourism to attract investment and partnerships to become a veritable tool to transform its social and economic potentials and thus contribute to its GrossDomestic Product more.
NTDA Boss was certain that developing domestic tourismwill turn around virtually other sectors, which at the same time translates to more financial strength for the industry and the country, adding that the agenc.