Tourism minister Lola Ade-John says plans have begun to market Nigeria’s enormous tourism industry potential through virtual reality gadgets and documentaries.

Ms Ade-John disclosed this on Thursday during a meeting with the Association of Nigerian Journalists and Writers of Tourism (ANJET).

According to her, the ministry will take every step to market the nation’s tourism assets to the world.

“Marketing and promotion of Nigeria’s tourism endowments is key and huge for us. We have begun a lot in this area and among such is the use of documentaries and virtual reality gadgets to attract visitors, to boost domestic tourism.

“We are currently working on producing documentaries on tourism assets and experiences peculiar to each state. These documentaries would also spur the interest of intending tourists to visit those sites physically,” stated the minister.

She added, “Also, we are going to create community tourism resource centres in every city in Nigeria, which will enable tourists to gain access to information on their choice destinations in each city.

“We are still in the planning stage to upscale the industry, very soon execution of our plans will be implemented.”

Ms Ade-John explained the importance of having a functional website that would market the nation’s tourism assets and said plans were also underway to actualise this.

She said, “This will be done in such a way that when people type Nigeria on the internet, the first thing that will be displayed will be the nation’s tourism endowments, as obtainable in the U.S.”

She stressed that the ministry had already engaged with the National Orientation Agency, Ministry of Aviation, Nigeria Immigration Service and many other organisations to bridge the wide gap in aviation, transportation and tourism.

The minister, who noted the importance of data gathering in improving the industry, said the ministry had created a new department for data gathering.

She expressed readiness to work with ANJET and other private tourism operators in the country. 

(NAN)