Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation says effective inter-agency collaboration between government and private sector practitioners will promote growth of tourist attractions.

NTDC Director-General, Mr Folorunsho Coker, stated this in a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day Southeast Tourism Stakeholders’ Forum in Enugu.

Coker said stakeholders in the industry had agreed to deploy innovative, home grown, practical and tailor-made solutions for specific environments and peoples.

He explained that tourism business should adopt digital tools such as travel apps and digital marketing platforms to aid service delivery in the sector.

According to him, the industry has the capability to generate sustainable revenues to rival crude oil revenue by closing the gap between technology-driven and global connected tourism businesses and traditional ones.

“We agreed that tourism entrepreneurs should adopt digital tools and technology for wider reach.

“The use of technology in the tourism and hospitality ecosystem is vital to the sector’s development and recovery,’’ Coker said.

He added that the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture remained committed to providing the enabling environment for all agencies to perform optimally to boost tourism in Nigeria.

Coker said Nigeria needed to develop domestic tourism which would increase the country’s attraction to sponsors and investors to become Africa’s tourism hub.

He stressed that the “Tour Nigeria’’ brand created by the NTDC would drive domestic consumption of tourism assets and commercialisation as well as increase revenue generation.

“All these resolutions would be given due consideration,’’ he said.

The stakeholders’ forum had: “Utilising digital tools for optimization and destination marketing’’ as its theme.

NAN