Li Xuda, cultural counsellor of the Chinese Embassy, has spoken of the need to harness the capacity of youths to strengthen the tourism relations between China and Nigeria.

Mr Li, also the director of the China Cultural Centre in Nigeria, made the call during a Tourism and Culture seminar on Thursday in Abuja.

He explained that the tourism sector, described by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation as one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing industries, plays a crucial role in national development.

“It is no exaggeration to say that tourism is a promising industry for the development of our two countries. In my eyes, young people are always energetic, diligent, ready to accept new things and have the courage to innovate.

“So we can say young people represent vitality and the future; they are a really new force in promoting social development and international cooperation.

“There is no doubt that the young generation is the hope for future exchanges and cooperation between China and Nigeria in the field of tourism,” he said.

Mr Li added that in 2018, China and Nigeria became partners in jointly building the ‘Belt and Road’, which made China-Nigeria cooperation even more in-depth and practical.

“As active participants in the ‘Belt and Road’ international cooperation, young people have gradually grown over the past years of China-Nigeria win-win cooperation. I firmly believe that our young generation will also play an important role in promoting tourism exchanges in the new stage of high-quality joint construction.

“Nowadays we always say ‘The relationship between two countries is based on the affection between two countries’ civilians’, tourism exchange can really make it possible.

“I think the essence of tourism exchange is a people-to-people exchange, which serves as a bridge in promoting mutual understanding and mutual learning between countries,” Mr Li said.

In his remarks, Okon Emmanuel, president of the Youth Tourism Development Organisation, charged young people to participate in tourism and cultural development consciously.

Mr. Emmanuel noted that tourism is key to cultural heritage promotion and preservation as it involves the movement of people from one place to another to discover other people’s culture.

Mike Ugwu, vice-chairman of the Nigeria-China Business Council, said tourism exchanges play a vital role in strengthening and promoting friendship between countries as they help people understand the cultures and ways of life of both countries.

(NAN)