Continuous innovation, collaboration, commitment sustains tourism —NTDA DG

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

The Director-General, Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA), Ola Awakan, said strong collaboration, continuous innovation and unwavering commitment is needed  from all stakeholders for the tourism sector to achieve its full potentials.

He said the  future of Nigeria’s tourism cannot be built in isolation, adding that all hands must be on deck to drive the sector.

Awakan made this known yesterday at a two-day National Hospitality Stakeholders Forum on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said the forum will provide a platform to share ideas, build consensus, and define clear, actionable pathways for the growth and sustainability of the sector.

“ With this impressive turnout, it is clear that there is a strong stakeholders commitment to the sector.

“ Moving forward, this forum will evolve into a periodic national tourism stakeholders’ town hall series, with the inaugural series set to commence next year, growing from this modest beginning into a major national platform.

“I urge all participants to engage actively, contribute meaningfully, and approach our deliberations with a sense of purpose and responsibility.

“Together, we can transform Nigeria’s tourism into a major contributor to national GDP, a driver of job creation, and a powerful instrument for national unity and global influence”, he said.

The DG noted that it is also important to acknowledge that the sector has not yet attained its full potential.

He described that there are challenges in the sector such as fragmented institutional coordination and infrastructural deficits.

“Others are limited global visibility, and inconsistencies in regulatory frameworks which have constrained growth. “Notwithstanding these challenges, we are at a pivotal moment in our journey, supported by renewed policy direction, growing private sector interest. The “renewed hope agenda” of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the enabling provisions of the NTDA Act, 2022, has provided a stronger legal and institutional foundation for transformation”.

Speaking further, he said as the chief tourism marketing agency of Nigeria, the NTDA is also focused on expanding inbound tourism, positioning tourism as a viable export sector capable of generating foreign exchange earnings.

Also speaking, the Chairman of the House Committee on Tourism, Muhammed Muktar, said “from the legislative perspective,

we are trying to strengthen the tourism law in order to regulate the tourism sector in times of sustainable growth and laws that will make this sector drive.

Muktar said this laws will sharpen tourism in times of the economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of country .

“A motion has been moved to capture the tourism matters in to the concurrent list  and residual list .

He maintained that the stakeholders forum showed improvement in the sector.