Onung Highlights Tourism Challenges, Opportunities

Former President of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), Nkereweum Onung, has said despite progress made during his eight-year tenure, legislative bottlenecks have continued to hamper tourism development in Nigeria.

Onung, who stated this at Villa Square, a special segment of Creative Nigeria — a weekly cultural tourism magazine programme on Mainland 98.3 FM, Lagos, described his tenure as being complex with diverse members’ interests, while he championed policies to reposition the tourism sector.

“Most times, people think tourism is on the residual list. It is not on the concurrent list, and we had an unfortunate court judgment in 2013. But I believe tourism is a national concern, and we must work on better laws,” Onung said.

He said that government must begin to see tourism as a sustainable sector with vast economic potential.

“Oil will finish. But we must deliberately begin to fund tourism if we are serious about diversifying our economy,” he added.

The ex-FTAN president, who serves as the Senior Special Adviser on Tourism and Culture to the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, said FTAN has developed strategic frameworks to improve the tourism experience nationwide.

These include the adoption of technology and innovative solutions to elevate service delivery across the industry.

“When we reflect on this regime, you look at some of the things we tried to push, like the standardisation and policy for the industry, which has been a challenge,” he said.

He added, “I got involved with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and ECOWAS, but all of these take a process before they become a reality.”

On FTAN’s recent decision to boycott the United Nations Tourism Africa Commission’s engagement, Onung said it was prompted by the federal government’s lack of meaningful consultation with the private sector. “Often, the government assumes the private sector will tag along. But the real issue is getting the government to meaningfully engage and include private sector voices in planning and implementation,” he said.

He called for more coordinated and inclusive approach to tourism development, reiterating the need for articulated policies and adequate funding to unlock private sector investment.

Onung also stressed the importance of metrics to track tourism’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and national development.

“As a nation, we need to do better. We have a huge advantage with our population — the most populous Black nation in the world — but if we don’t leverage that for, growth, it won’t help us.

“We’ve tried to keep stakeholder engagement very active. We have also undertaken several standardisation efforts to raise the bar within the sector,” he said.