Tourism development a wayout to tackle unemployment –Tourism stakeholders

Lagos – Some stakeholders in the nation’s tourism industry on Saturday said that the hospitality industry could play a pivotal role in providing employment for jobless youths in newly-built hotels and resort centres.
Two of the stakeholders who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on telephone said that tourism had a critical role to play in the nation’s economy.
Mr Wale Odeyemi, a Senior Lecturer with the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), South West Campus in Lagos, urged the three tiers of government to take tourism development seriously.
“Hotels, fast food joints and major shopping malls like Shoprite, are springing up in every corner of this country; these business concerns have employed thousands of Nigerians and created job opportunities.
“Direct and indirect taxes generated from these business concerns, have become a major source of revenue for the local and state governments, as well as the Federal Government.
“In view of this, all governments should lay more emphasis in hospitality and tourism development, to achieve political direction in developing the non-oil sector and in tackling unemployment,” Odeyemi said.
The lecturer also urged the federal government to review the law setting up the Nigeria Tourism Development Commission (NTDC), to ensure that every aspect of the law was complied with.
He added that with the drop in oil prices in the world market, tourism was an area that could revamp the nation’s economy, if properly handled.
In the same vein, Prof. Oladele Falade, a lecturer in Tourism and Events Management, Afe-Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, told NAN that tourism was capable of boosting the nation’s 2016 N6.08 trillion budget.
He added that tourism and the hospitality industry were already contributing to the economy due to the large taxes realised from the hospitality and tourism sector.
“There is need to ensure that only experts that are knowledgeable in tourism affairs are allowed to participate in manpower training, to achieve better results in the industry,” Falade added. (NAN)