The Federal Government is moving to overhaul the country’s visa policies and other protocols in an effort to boost tourist numbers and increase revenue from the subsector which sees less than five million tourists annually.
Speaking during an interview in Lagos recently, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, observed that the visa policy overhaul would ensure flexible visa processing at Nigerian embassies across the world and curb the growing complain of foreigners, concerning the difficulty and high cost of procuring Nigerian visas.
While seamless visa processing is expected to encourage more visitors to the country, the minister hopes to further boost tourist arrivals by the seamless issuance of visa on arrival, tourist visa, improvement of airport facilities and retraining of staff of the country’s immigration service, to treat foreigners with more courtesy.
Comparing the impact of stress-free visa procurement on the economy of other African countries, Mohammed observed that Ghana is scrambling for more tourists coming to West Africa with her visa-on-arrival procedure.
Ethiopia, another African country, secured over $1.7 billion in revenue from tourism over the past six months, generated from over 470,000 foreign tourists.
Gezahegn Abate, Public Relations and International Affairs Director, at Ethiopia’s ministry of tourism, attributed the feat to tourist-friendly visa policies, observance of high professional ethics by the country’s immigration service and massive infrastructural development across the country in recent times.
In same vein, South Africa is enjoying a spike in African tourist arrivals, as 1,012, 641 tourists arrived the country in January this year, representing a 15.4 percent increase over last year’s record.
The Nigerian minister of Information and Culture is confident that these feats are achievable in Nigeria, especially now that revenue from oil has nose-dived.
He promised that the move would be sustained, as his ministry is working with sister ministries, relevant agencies, security and the stakeholders, to expedite action on the visa policy overhaul.
Magnus Okwe, a tourism expert, said it is vital that there be synergy between the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Immigration Service, Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria and the Customs Service, to capture data and receipts on tourist arrivals in the country, so as to curb revenue leakages.
“There is need for accurate tourism statistics for reference and planning purposes. It is embarrassing that the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Immigration, Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria and Customs cannot give accurate data on tourist arrivals or even Nigerian outbound travelers. The NTDC once said it recorded 4,037,808 inbound tourists visited Nigeria in 2013 spending $649.47 million, but getting subsequent data has become more difficult”, he observed.
Ikechi Uko, another tourism expert, said the quest to increase Nigeria’s tourist arrivals implies that sustainable efforts should be made at getting the country among the top 10 tourist destinations in Africa. To achieve that, there is need to create new tourism products, repackage existing ones and also to market them at continent and global levels.
Uko adds that airport and immigration authorities among others, need to distinguish between foreign business travelers and tourists, to enable accurate data and status of the arrivals. There should be parameters to gauge where they visit, how much they spend in the country, and their impression about the country, to enable data collation, and planning, he says.
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