Imoke tasks government on incentives for operators to grow tourism

Former Governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke, has urged the government at all levels to make incentives a key factor to stimulate operators in the tourism sector.

To ensure its growth, the former governor called on the government to look critically into its role and focus more on providing different forms of incentives for the investors and operators who charge to grow the sector.

“Tourism has to be private sector driven with the government as the enabler, but sometimes, the government becomes the mover. This is why it is imperative for the government to create incentives as one of the mandatory roles otherwise we would not grow the industry.”
  
He observed that Nigeria has all it takes to have a vibrant tourism industry, but the disagreement between the government and the private sector should not define the industry.

“The industry is bigger than all of us and it will continue to grow,” he noted.

“The greatest challenge I find is insecurity and access to tourism, which the government has to provide and when the government fails, then the investors and operators fail. These are critical issues that we must address. Why is the tourism budget shrinking when we have a sector that we want to grow? How and when do we create capital for the industry? Is tourism a luxury good or is it a necessity? All of these are part of the challenges that we face,’’ he said.