Nigeria to host global tourism gathering in 2018 – Lai Muhammed

The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Muhammed has revealed plans by Nigeria to host the 60th United Nation World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO),  meeting slated for 2018. Muhammed disclosed this while discussing the many advantages Nigeria stands to benefit from its recent participation in the UNWTO summit in Madrid, Spain ,with journalists in […]

The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Muhammed has revealed plans by Nigeria to host the 60th United Nation World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO),  meeting slated for 2018.
Muhammed disclosed this while discussing the many advantages Nigeria stands to benefit from its recent participation in the UNWTO summit in Madrid, Spain ,with journalists in Lagos.
According to the minister, as part of its numerous programmes to project Nigeria to the outside world, the Federal Government had thought it wise to attend the global tourism meeting after many years of absence.
‘Quoting the words of the Chairman of UNWTO, he said ‘we were delighted to have Nigeria fully back in UNWTO. Nigeria is too important to be out of UNWTO. Truly, the new government in Nigeria has a good reputation’.
“The icing on the cake for Nigeria was that come 2018, Nigeria will be hosting the UNWTO 60th meeting. We believe by doing this, we shall be attracting the attention of the world to Nigeria,” Muhammed said.
The minister further noted that apart from hosting the UNWTO meeting in Nigeria, the global tourism body has agreed to assist Nigeria in reviewing its tourism master plan, which he said has been sitting on the shelves for many years.
“Although we have in place a master plan. And what we have in it are classifications of various tourists’ centres into clustering such as Atlantic, Savannah, Rain Forest, among others. But the truth is that there is a need to have a review of a number of things and we believe we have improved beyond what they used to be,” Muhammed said.