IN its bid towards promoting domestic tourism in Nigeria and encourage Nigerians to take their holiday as well as weekend break with Nigeria, the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mr. Folorunsho Coker has expressed his organization’s readiness to form a strong synergy with Airline Operators of Nigeria to ensure development and promotion of the Nigerian Tourism industry.
Coker dropped this hint while receiving the Chairman of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Nogie Meggison who paid a courtesy visit to the Director General at the Tourism Corporate headquarters in Abuja recently.
In his words, Coker stressed that affordable air travel is key and indispensable in building the tourism economy. He reechoed his commitment to promoting domestic tourism in Nigeria, by exploring packaged tours and digital technology to drive the consumption of the tourism assets in the country.
“This is why NTDC finds it important to establish a strategic partnership with Airline Operators of Nigeria to create affordable air fares within inclusive packages in order to boost domestic tourism. We seek discounted weekend airline tickets to Abuja to propel the success of #MyAbujaWeekend’ Project, further encouraging the travel businesses and promote hospitality and tourism services in capital city of Nigeria”, he said.
While speaking on how to drive domestic tourism, the NTDC boss said the key component to tourism which according to him are travel, accommodation and entertainment/hospitality would be explored with the airlines, hotels, car hire services, tour operators and others to bring out affordable package tours to encourage Nigerians to tour Nigeria.
The NTDC Boss also called for a conscious investment in the promotion of domestic tourism, while appealing to everyone in the value chain of tourism, state and local governments and the private sector to work together and be ready to drive the market with a new brand TOUR NIGERIA.
Meggison in his response expressed the readiness of the association to partner with NTDC to ensure aggressive promotion of tourism in Nigeria, thereby making Nigeria the cheapest holiday destination for Nigerians initially.
His statement reads; “The practice everywhere in the world is the Airlines being the front burner in driving Tourism and Nigeria would not be an exception. We are ready to work with you in driving the Nigerian Tourism Industry forward,”.
