The Federal government has Nigerians to use the tourism potential of the country to market it to the global community on social media platforms rather than derogatory pictures capable of diminishing the nation’s image.
Director General Nigerian Tourism Development Authority, NTDA, Mr Ola Awakan, made the appeal while featuring on Radio One breakfast show, This Morning.
Mr Awakan commended some content creators for showcasing sites where most traditional media cannot get through, noting that all hands must be on deck to rebrand the nation.
I think the job of us marketing Nigeria lies in the hands of everybody.
All hands must be on deck for us to sell what we have in Nigeria to the international community”.
“As NTDA, we cannot do it alone.
You have to do it from the corners of your room.
I appreciate what content creators are doing, there are places that even traditional media cannot get to see content creators going there so we should do more of this we are going to identify with them as federal government and we want all hands to be on deck we want us to collaborate together.
“While acknowledging some of the security challenges, the NTDA DG, said the Agency will leverage technology to track Tourists within the country”.
As far as the security issues that we talk about it’s a concerned i think the media also has a role to play we should reduce amplifying security issues in this country, Mr President is doing his best working with the security chiefs to address the security issues and for every tourist that want to move around please identify with NTDA, we can take you to anywhere you want to go to we can guide you appropriately”.
“We tell you that tourism is the next oil as far as Nigeria is concerned”.
Mr Awakan who stated that storytelling is a powerful tool to grow the tourism potential of the country, assured Nigerians of the commitment of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration to ensure dividends of democracy get to the marginalized.
He urged State governments and the private sector to collaborate with NTDA to maximize the tourism potential of the nation saying Tourism is the next oil for the nation’s economy.
Written by Yemisi Dada