Stakeholders Seek More Media Collaboration In Tourism Development

Stakeholders in the Nigerian tourism industry are reminded of the need to work closely with the media to package, market and promote the country’s rich tourism potential to the international community.

The Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Chief Segun Runsewe said this at a training organized for tourism writers by the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism, NIHOTOUR.

The training had as its theme “Tourism Communication, Bridging the Public and Private Sector Communication Gap”.

“Journalists are the most important factor and segment of this sector and most times some Director-Generals are hiding what they are doing from Journalists, and when they don’t succeed they become disappointed. The journalists want to see what those in government positions have done and it will be reported accordingly” said Runsewe.

Mr Runsewe, who was one of the facilitators at the training, identified the need for constant and continuous interaction between the public and private sector stakeholders in the Nigerian tourism sector.

“This will make seamless communication possible by providing an opportunity for all players to share their views and opinions on how to move the sector forward,” he noted.

Another facilitator, a veteran Journalist, Dr Peter Igho in his presentation titled “Tourism crisis communication: the role of media practitioners” said the role of the media in promoting tourism is to promote risk mitigation initiatives and amplify the tourism potential of Nigeria to attract foreign and domestic tourists to patronise the Nigerian tourism industry.

“The media must understand and design tailor-made programmes that would be holistic and must keep the spotlight on the whole tourism value chain”.

Ensuring the development of Nigerian tourism

On his part, the Chief host of the event, the Director-General National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism, Mr Nura Kangiwa said his administration will work with the private sector and tourism media in ensuring the development of Nigerian tourism.

“The primary mandate of NIHOTOUR is to ensure best practices among practitioners.

“The vast majority of holiday decisions are made by people who have never seen destinations for themselves. They select places to go, they buy plane tickets and reserve hotel rooms based on what they have learned from their travel agents, from friends and above all from media”.

Mr Kangiwa noted that research has shown that the media is many times more influential in the section of holiday spots than travel agents and even more influential than recommendations from friends.

Emmanuel Ukoh