Stories by Charles Nwaoguji

Experts in tourism sector has said Nigeria could generate well over $90 billion annually from tourism industry if it well managed by the Federal government.
They identified tourism as a veritable option for sustainable development as Nigeria grapples with the challenges of the revenue depletion. At a maiden edition of Destination Tourism Night  in Lagos, organized by Travelogue Communication Limited , themed: “ Connecting Tourism values”  the Chief Executive Officer of  OYASAF, Engineer Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon,  stated that the direct economic contribution of travel and tourism worldwide amounted to approximately 2.16 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013.
He said that in the Manila Declaration on World Tourism in 1980, Tourism is an activity that is essential to the life of nations because of its direct and indirect effects on the social, cultural, educational and economic sectors of a nation.
Shyllon noted that the uniqueness of tourism as an important sector is also evident in its ability to employ skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower, and despite wars, political conflicts, natural disasters, medical scares, terrorist attacks, and economic and energy crises in various parts of the world, international trade in tourism revenue has grown in geometric progression since the 1980s.
The Chief Executive Officer of Travelogue Communication Limited, Mr. Ayo Omotoso,  said there is urgent need to build a resilient and dynamic economy that is well placed to harness the country’s abundant resource endowment.
He described Nigeria’s experiences in the past three decades as clearly highlighting the shortcomings of a development strategy that placed a premium on foreign exchange earnings from non-renewable natural resources, especially oil and natural resources. He said the economic and social challenges, which the country has been experiencing from the 1970s, is connected to the fall of the international oil prices.
“Our experiences in the recent past also clearly demonstrate that oil and mineral resources are non-renewable and have very limited potential for addressing the development challenges that face the country today and over the medium and long term period.

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