The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said on Wednesday that the idea of World Tourism Day being marked globally on September 27 was initiated by a Nigerian, late Ignatius Amaduwa Atigbi. The Minister, who is the Vice President, Africa, United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) disclosed this in a statement issued in London to mark the 2017 World Tourism Day.
He said that Atigbi was the then Secretary-General of the Nigeria Tourism Association (NTA), now Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), and Chairman of Africa Travel Commission (ATC). Mohammed said that the World Tourism Day was adopted at the 22nd General Assembly of the International Union of Official Travel Organizations (IUOTO) in 1971.
In his message to mark the day, the minister noted that “sustainability is absolutely necessary if tourism is to achieve its full potentials, which include being a catalyst for economic growth and poverty eradication”. He assured that the Federal Government would continue to play its part in the development and management of tourism. He, however, noted that the real key to making Nigeria’s tourism industry flourish laid with the industry itself and the businesses and organisations at its heart.
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