RESUSCITATING
NIGERIA’S TOURISM INDUSTRY AS WE CELEBRATE THE 2017 WORLD TOURISM DAY
By Fred Doc Nwaozor
The last time I checked, every September 27 remained World Tourism Day. This unarguably implies that today being Wednesday, the world over
is celebrating the 2017 edition of the World Tourism Day.
At its third session held in
Torremolinos, Spain in 1979, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly mandated
its Member States to observe September 27 each year as the World Tourism Day
having reached a unanimous resolution.
The day was chosen to coincide
with an important historic milestone in the world’s tourism sector, which is
the anniversary of the adoption of the UN Tourism Statutes on 27th
September 1970. The first commemoration of the World Tourism Day took place in
1980; suffice it to say that this year’s anniversary marks the 38th
edition of the laudable annual event.
The theme of this year’s
celebration is ‘Sustainable Tourism: a tool for development’. It is in line
with the 2017 International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. It is
dedicated to exploring the contribution of tourism to the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
The last time I checked,
observing a beautifully-looking environment remained one of the prime desires
of every sane being. This is the reason every able-bodied man works assiduously
to ensure that his/her immediate surroundings appear enticingly. Tourism as an
area of life or human endeavour is a sector that has over the decades pays an
optimum attention to how attractive our surroundings look; this makes the sector
to be globally recognized.
Concisely, tourism is the
business activity connected with provision of accommodation, entertainment, and
other hospitable services for people who are visiting a place for pleasure. In
other words, a tourist can be described as a person who is travelling or
visiting a certain locality for the sake of pleasure. Tourism has been proven to
be an outstanding industry that can guarantee absolute relaxation for mankind
irrespective of background.
In the past, our various heritages
were being used by our ancestors as a means of entertaining themselves, and
their guests. Presently, the tourism industry has shown that these endowments
can equally be utilized as business venture by upgrading them to international
standard. Noting the positive impact of the tourism industry the world over, it
is of no need reiterating that it has contributed massively to the
socio-economic development of most nations. Analysts are of the view that the
industry represents about nine percent (9%) of the global Gross Domestic
Product (GDP), and that it is a key revenue sector for developing and emerging
economies.
Indeed, tourism plays a very
vital role in building blocks of a more sustainable future for all, which is
community development. Above all, it is widely acknowledged for its capacity to
respond to global challenges. In view of this, there is an urgent need for
Nigeria to follow suit to ensure that the world tourism industry, that helps to
foster global unity and complete rest of mind, is granted a preferential
treatment at all cost.
Nigeria can encourage the commendable crusade
by ensuring that her countless socio-cultural resources are optimally
rejuvenated. This proposed measure would not only help to encourage the world
tourism industry, but would go a long way to elevate the country’s Gross
National Product (GNP), thus strengthening her ongoing sagging economy. Nigeria
as an independent state is made up of over two hundred and fifty ethnic groups,
and each of these groups is tremendously blessed with various socio-cultural
endowments. These cultural resources including dancing, masquerading, dressing,
hunting, fishing, wrestling, and molding of sculptures, just to mention but a
few, if well harnessed, would definitely help to revive the nation’s tourism
sector, thereby boosting her socio-economic and political ego.
The timing of the World Tourism Day is
appropriate, because it comes at the end of the high season in the Northern
hemisphere and at the beginning of the season in the Southern hemisphere, when
tourism is of topical interest to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
The UN Conference on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) held in 2012
emphasized that well-designed and appropriately managed tourism can make a
significant contribution to the economic, social and environmental dimensions
of sustainable development.
The then Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon further highlighted that,
tourism which remains one of the world’s largest economic sectors, is specially
well-placed to promote environmental sustainability, green-growth, and human
struggle against climate change through its relationship with energy.
Ever since its inception, the World Tourism
Day is celebrated to foster awareness among the global community on the essence
of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value. The
celebration seeks to highlight tourism potential as regards promotion of the
SDGs, as well as how it addresses some of the most pressing challenges the
global society is currently faced with.
So, as Nigeria joins the rest of the world to
celebrate the remarkable day, we are all expected to contribute our quota
toward ensuring that our respective environments or surroundings become
globally recognized as attractive and human friendly localities, so that,
generations yet unborn would live to
remember that an attractive environment is a society we all yearn for.
The truth remains that
everywhere in Nigeria bears tourism potentials, thus all that is required of
the government among other concerned stakeholders is to swing into action headlong
with the sole aim of doing the needful. Hence, it’s high time we quit
retrogressive debates and discussions regarding tourism towards focusing solely
on progressive ones. Think about it!
Comrade Nwaozor, public
Affairs Analyst &
Civil Rights Activist, is the Executive
Director,
Docfred Resource Hub - Owerri
(frednwaozor@gmail.com)
N.B:- You can forward your opinion articles for publication via: rostrummedia@gmail.com, or call: +2348028608056
No comments:
Post a Comment