‘Tourism is a phenomenon not a factory’

Daily Trust Saturday: Why is Nigeria not getting it correctly  in terms of tourism?Stephen Zailani Haruna: The simplest reason is because we have always thought of tourism as the something which we can do, rather than something which happens, when the circustances are right. Tourism is a phenomena not a factory where you put things […]

Daily Trust Saturday: Why is Nigeria not getting it correctly  in terms of tourism?
Stephen Zailani Haruna: The simplest reason is because we have always thought of tourism as the something which we can do, rather than something which happens, when the circustances are right. Tourism is a phenomena not a factory where you put things together turn the keys and it starts. What are the ingridents for tourism?
There  must be a reason becasue tourism is the movement of people from one place to another for a particular reason, nothing will move you to another destination if it’s not attractive.
So, if you have nothing to attract any people, don’t expect anybody to come, that is one.Secondly, this attraction, how acessiblb is it, how good  is the acess because when you do tourism, don’t forget there are other competing destination,so you have to make it very  easily acessible.
Average  tourism have very short time to spend,so he  wants to use the short opprtunity to enjoy maximally and  when he moves from homes, it is then he will require this place because he will not move with his home.So these other things are just complimentary services but the main ingridents of tourism is the attraction. If you take this place for example, you will see that nobody comes here except for the wild animals and this is something you cannot find anywhere.if you are looking for a good hotel, this is not even a graded hotel and I don’t think it fully qualifies as a two star hotel but people are  coming for the wildlife and if they come they will begin to wonder what kind hotel you provide for them if they cannot see the wildlife, then it is useless.Then if they come because of the wildlife, then how accessible is the wildlife, how easily can they see the animals? Do they have to go through so much stress because nobody wants stress, especially when you’re  spending your own  money and this us the way you keep spending money and doing other things, tourism is not done that way, do the proper  things and everything will fall in place, security provide it, transpotation, acess communication and the attraction itself and people will just trupe in.
DTS: How can we turn Yankari into an international attraction?
Haruna: Yankari has a lot to offer tourists even though most of them are not aware but it is not a question of being aware of what they have but a question of can they see it when they come. Now if you come all the way from Lagos to see wildlife, maybe you have only 2-3 days to spend, you should be able to move very quickly from Lagos and arrive the same day at the destination, at least there should be connecting flight easily. When you come, you should be able to access all the attraction because your desire is to see everything within a short time, but when you come, you discover that you cannot even move out because the roads are not good, there are no suitable vechicles, so you find out that you may spend your whole day without really moving anywhere. Then the wildlife, what is the desnsity of the wildlife, do they go into hiding when they hears sounds of vechicles, that means they are disturbed, so even if they are there, as soon as they hear a strange sound they go into hiding  and your purpose is defeated, now what you need is to protect the aminals in such a way that both their life and their habitat where they obtain their food and a shelter is well carter for, they breed normally, they don’t fear humans, they have nothing to fear, they relax and move about very freely and get them acustom to the presence of people. They know people are no longer dangerous to them, so you can watch and be able to drive to any part of the reserve without any hindrance and you should be able to do it quick and at your own pace. You should have alternative roads depending on what you want to see and get to those places as quickly as possible, then that’s what you call the wild life experience, that you see animals every minutes that you travel the road or after every few metres, 500 meters there is something to see and another 500 meters, by the time  you  cover 50 kilometer in the reserve, you must have seen so much. That’s how it should be, animals have to be protected, the acess to those animals have to be proper and allow any tourists to see what he wants to see.
DTS: Are the current laws sufficient to address the lapses in the sector?
Haruna: The laws are ok but the problem is with the implementation and the non availability of basic facilities. The success of tourism as we have seen in other places is as a result of a combination of factors such as security, transportation, accommodation, and a well planned conservation system where the animals are protected against poachers. But here all these factors are not there, the animals are not protected, poachers are daily reducing the populations of the wildlife and they get protection from society while the animals suffer but in other countries that place high premium on tourism, you cannot hunt or poach the wildlife and go free. We need to work seriously on enforcement if we want to make the sector attractive.