Tourism has the potentials of turning around the economic situations of the country and help check the rising rate of unemployment. Nigeria would also generate $50 billion from the sector by the year 2020. These were the assuring submissions of the Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Kayode Adetokunboh Senior Advocate Of Nigeria (SAN), represented by the Minister of state, in the ministry, Dr. Aliu Idi-Hong, at the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, GTE, organised National Forum on Tourism Development in Nigeria, held in Lagos between July 31 and August 1, 2008.

The conference tagged, Mainstreaming Tourism for Sustainable Economic Development had in attendance the big wigs in the tourism sector, including practitioners from the public and private sectors, who came to brainstorm on the way forward for tourism development in Nigeria. Some of the participants include, Sam Ohuabunwa, Chairman NESG; MD Abubakar, AIG; Ben Murray-Bruce, CEO Silverbird Group; Dr.Franklin Adejuwon, Consultant, National Tourism Masterplan; Munzali Dantata, DG, Nihotour; Yusuf Bomoi, DG, NYSC; Numan Barau. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation; Edem Duke, President, Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN); Senator Dahiru Bako Gassol, Chairman, Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism and Commissioners of Tourism from Akwa Ibom, Edo, Delta and Ekiti States.

The minister, in his keynote address, said the target for the travel and tourism industry include, 50 percent increase in arrivals at air and sea ports; 20 percent annual growth in real terms of the Hotels, Restaurants and Hospitality; and increase in employment generation by 25 percent.

He however noted that there are a lot to be done to achieve the set targets in the industry and called for collaboration between the public and private sectors in the areas of infrastructure development; security; creating tourism awareness; developing the environment, addressing the Niger Delta issue; development of the aviation sector; consistency in government policy; removal of the tax holidays for tourism and related investments and joint venture between states and private investors in the development of tourism.

Equally, Hong, who presented a paper tagged: 'the essence of private partnership in the development of the tourism industry in Nigeria,' advocated the mainstreaming of tourism into the economic agenda at the state and local government levels in the country. He also called for the revival of public-private partnerships, which would reduce governments' direct involvement in tourism development and ease bureaucratic bottlenecks and enable smoother decision making process.

Hong regretted the omission of tourism from the vision 2020 agenda, a factor he said, has relegated the sector to the background, pleading that the sector should be accorded a front row in the economic agenda of the country.

"There is also a growing global recognition of tourism as a key to sustainable development, due to its inherent contribution to poverty alleviation, general economic growth, and attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and our home grown National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (NEEDS)," he said.

The minister added that the tourism potentials in the country, if harnessed, can generate enormous foreign exchange earnings that would augment earnings from oil. "Tourism is a key aspect of the new approach to national development and has high economic power and potential for foreign exchange earnings," he said.

Mrs. Esther Adeyemi, Director of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, in her paper titled: An Overview of the Tourism Masterplan Project for Nigeria, analysed the tourism masterplan, its objectives and implication for the industry. She left the attendees wondering what has been forestalling the implementation of the document in line with the policy of President Yar'Adua to carry on with the reforms of the last administration.

However, the tempo of the change with the presentation of Ben Bruce, Chairman, CEO of Silverbird Group, who took the government to the cleaners in the development of the travel and tourism industry. His paper tittled The Challenges of Tourism Investment in Nigeria; an Operator's Perspective was more practical than theoretical, detailing his experiences as a tourism practitioner in Nigeria in the last three decades.

He virtually set the attendees asking for more with his insightful analysis of the industry, stating that the incessant harassments and regime of intimidation which tourists encounter in the country from overzealous security operatives is a major impediment to the development of the sector.

Murray- Bruce, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) gave further insight into what tourists suffer in their bid to process visas to Nigeria, condemning the time frame for obtaining Nigerian visas abroad as sluggish and discouraging for the development of the industry.

He lamented the high cost of processing Nigerian visa abroad, stating that it costs between 45 and 205 pounds to process a Nigerian Visa in England and between $130 and $350 dollars in the United States of America.

Advising the federal government on how to develop the travel and tourism industry, Murray-Bruce called for adequate training of security operatives and fair treatment for tourists seeking visa to Nigeria from abroad.

He also frowned at taxi operators at the nation's international airports; observing that the cabs are not registered and do not have metres, hence they can't be tracked in the case of any incident of robbery or fraud.

Proffering solution, he called for re-orientation and training among people who preface tourists entering into the country, like security men, aviation officials and others.

Another issue he frowned at was the menace of area boys in the country, stating that such acts discourage and harass tourists, who after experiencing unsavoury treatment in the hands of the urchins might not visit the country again.

However, the conference went for a break after which it was divided into five committees comprising, infrastructure/finanace; capacity building; coordination/monitoring; sectoral investment/marketing and promotion; potentials/opportunities/resources; and Fiscal policy/regulatory framework.

The committees were asked to brainstorm on the problems facing the development of tourism in the country and come out with a blue print that would engender development and revival of tourism in Nigeria. The recommendations of the committees would form a support document to the national tourism masterplan that would be presented to the federal government for consideration and implementation.

After two days of brainstorming, the committees presented their reports. However there was nothing fresh because the recommendations had been in other reports which the federal government had not acted on.

Some of the recommendations reached at the committee level included, increased funding for tourism; enligthenement campaign on tourism; introduction of tourism in primary and secondary schools; implementation of the national tourism masterplan wholesale; increased private sector participation; recognition of tourism as an autonomous sector; legislation on the national tourism masterplan; sychroniastion of interminitserial events; revival of the presidential committee of tourism (PCT); tax holiday for tourism investments in the country; review of multiple taxation on tourism investments; upgrading of tourism products to meet international standard; re-brand Nigeria; state ministries of tourism to have website for tourism; grading of hospitality facilities in Nigeria; National parks and religious tourism to be re-assigned to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture; availability of feasibility studies on tourism site; and collaborative effort in marketing Nigeria between the public and private sector.

However, most of the participants were of the view that many conferences of this type had been held before without any action on the part of government and the reports rotting away in the shelves of the federal ministry of culture, tourism and national orientation. They wondered if the recommendations reached at this conference would not end up the same way.

However, what baffled most of the participants at the conference was the fact that the National tourism masterplan contained almost all the suggestions reached but it is yet to be implemented after three years. Most of them queried if the national tourism masterplan died with the government of Obasanjo.

All the participants agreed that what tourism development requires for thriving in Nigeria is the political will to implement the masterplan and other blueprints to the letter. Otherwise, it would continue to be the usual lip service, without any head way.