The Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr Farouk Salim has called on practitioners in the tourism industry to collaborate with SON to explore and promote Nigeria’s tourism potentials to the rest of the world.
Mr Salim made the call during the 16th International Conference of the Hospitality and Tourism Management Association of Nigeria, (HATMAN) in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The Director General while delivering a paper titled ‘Quality Assurance: The Hallmark for Viable Hospitality and Tourism Enterprises’, identified tourism as one of the fastest growing industries in the world and the backbone of every country’s economy.
Mr Salim who was represented by the Director, Management Systems Certification, Mr Felix Nyado, said that practitioners in the hospitality and tourism industry should endeavor to participate in national and international standardizations to develop hospitality products and services that meet with current taste and preferences of the stakeholders in the industry.
The SON boss informed participants at the event that the organisation has made available forty-four published International Standards for the tourism sector noting that Nigeria is registered as a participating member of ISO/TC 228 (Tourism and Related Services).
He explained that SON engages stakeholders in the sector on standards elaborations and called for more involvement from stakeholders in the sector.
Mr Salim further enjoined stakeholders in the industry to comply with standards and quality assurance activities in order to meet with the expectations of their customers and deliver satisfactory values that will improve on their business profitability and enhance competitiveness.
He noted the challenges witnessed in the Tourism sector to include poor infrastructures such as epileptic power supply and high cost of diesel, Bad Road networks, Poor quality water and low exchange rates which makes the industry struggle to meet its expectations alongside its Counterparts across the globe.
