TOURISM IN NIGERIA, PROBLEMS, AND PROSPECTS

Tourism is defined as the act of traveling or sightseeing particularly away from ones home. According to the world tourism organization, tourism is a much broader concept than travellimg away from one's home,or a holiday activity it also involves people traveling to and staying outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure,business and other purposes. In the same vein, the united nations dentified three forms of tourism in its Recommendations on Tourism Statistics:

Domestic tourism, involving residents of the given country traveling only within this country
Inbound tourism, involving non-residents traveling in the given country
Outbound tourism, involving residents traveling in another country.

The world trade organization forecasts that the international tourism will continue growing at an annual rate of 4%. In 2015,there were 1.186billion international tourist arrivals world wide,with a growth of 5% as compared to 1.133 billion in 2014.

Obviously, these statistics clearly imply that tourism is a fast emerging industry that holds a lot of prospects. Firstly, tourism can lead to increase in national income of a country, according to the world tourist organization the united states of America in 2015 ranked as the top tourism earner with a receipt of $204.5 billion. China followed earning $114.1 billion. Secondly, tourism can help in creating jobs and improving the standards of living of nations involved.

Tourism is embarked upon for a plethora of reasons which includes the desire to see ancient historical relics which tell a lot about the ways of our ancestors. For example the roman colosseum where ancient gladiators battled to the death,or the taj mahal in India which serve as an ancient symbol of love. Tourism can also be for the purpose of relaxation, or for religious pilgrimage like the yearly hajj,and christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem .

Tourist attractions range from ancient historical relics to beaches, resorts, battle fields, gothic buildings, cathedrals ,monuments, libraries, wildlife ,museums, nuclear waste sites,abandoned towns, haunted buildings, and even prison camps. In the united states alone tourist attractions are made out of virtually every place imaginable. One criteria required is just a bit of historical or paranormal event, for example the Gettysburg battle field, the Lincoln bedroom in the white house which is said to be haunted by Lincoln himself,various areas of U.F.O sightings, abandoned nuclear sites etc. This phenomenon is not common to America alone but is found in other European countries for example the ghetto's where Jews were kept during the holocaust, ww2 weapons and battle fields, grave yards etc. On yearly basis, people from different parts of the world visit these places as tourists .

Nigerians are among these tourists who flock around the world in search of tourist destinations. In fact, it is a thing of pride among Nigerians to take to the social media from their respective points of relaxation in Atlanta, Rome, paris ,Tokyo etc where they show off their utopia like lifestyle on foreign soil. While it appears to be a thing of pride and prestige to some, it raises a pertinent question which is " is there a dearth of tourist attraction in Nigeria?"

The answer is obviously no. In fact Nigeria has the potential to be one of the leading tourist hubs in the world. With a population of over 160 million people ,Nigeria is replete with people of different beliefs ,ways as well as cultures, among the Yoruba's for example ancient empires like the Oyo empire,the Benin empire, etc enjoyed almost equal grandeur like their counterparts in Rome, India etc . however, while ancient relics are left to remind of these great empires, there is almost nothing left to amaze people about the once great Oyo empire or the Benin empire save for a few palaces, monarchs and other relics of little significance. In terms of land forms, rivers, landscapes Nigeria is not lacking either . what should we say of the idanre hills, the olumo rock in Abeokuta? The ugbunike caves ,the mandara mountains , the jos plateau, the confluence ,the obudu cattle ranch, the ikogosi spring etc . clearly Nigeria is not living up to her potentials. Why then are we not in the same category with America , China. Hong Kong etc who are top earners in tourism ?
We can answer that question by considering the cascade of challenges that confront tourism in Nigeria.

The first challenge comes in form of investment and funding , most potential tourist attractions are often bereft of facilities and equipments like hotels, spa's, swimming pools, etc that are always necessary to support tourists when they come. Tourist attraction centres in most cases often appear less enticing to investors and are always left at the mercy of inept managers who are very quick to divert funds meant for developing these centres to their respective pockets.

Secondly, the recent spate of insecurity, corruption and political instabilities keep tourist far away from the shores of Nigeria for example the boko haram insurgency coupled with militancy,kidnappings as well as other vices have made most tourists stay as far away from an insecure country such as Nigeria.

Thirdly, the overdependence on oil has further dwindled the chances of tourism growing in Nigeria. As a country whose life is built around oil and gas it is very difficult for government to look out for other potential sources of income like tourism. This overdependence on oil is obvious in the current shock in world prices of oil which have sent the Nigerian economy plummeting.

Fourth is the deplorable state of social amenities in Nigeria. The absence of efficient roads network ,power supply, etc further serve as clogs in the wheels of tourist development in Nigeria, all these serve to restrict the access of tourists to sites which may be farther inland.

Fifth is the lack of development of more tourist attraction sites, for example ile-ife Nigeria is a very ancient town, and the spiritual home of every Yoruba however it is quite unfortunately that ife is not among the top tourist attractions in Nigeria. Save for a few museums and the ooni palace ife remains largely remote and unnoticed even though it has prospects to be one of the leading tourist sites in the world.

Today Nigeria is in recession oil prices are falling, jobs are unavailable ,life expectancy is very short , obviously Over dependence on oil has begin to tell on our economy . its high time we looked beyond our noses, we need to delve into tourism , we need to revive the spectral form of tourism in Nigeria. This can be achieved through proper funding and upgrading of tourist attraction centres, secondly we need to commit the development of these tourist attraction sites into the hand of capable and transparent individuals.

Thirdly, we need to embark on reconstruction of roads, ports ,etc which aids tourists.fourthly, we also need to search for ,and develop more tourist attractions for people around the world to see.
Conclusively, its high time we started to develop our tourism sector in Nigeria, considering the prospects of tourism wise governments have been very quick to harness these potentials by investing in them and have yielded profits in their billions. The USA, China. Germany, hong Kong etc are among the top earners of tourism•

■Why can't we develop our own tourism?.

IMAGE SOURCE: PIXABAY

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