The Chairman Calabar Carnival Sir. Gabe Onah visited the Conservator General at the National Park Service (NPK) on Wednesday in Abuja to discuss improvement of the parks and collaborations for enhanced revenue.
In his remark the Chairman Calabar Carnival Mr. Gabe Onah said there is need to plug the low hanging fruits within the two organisations in other to boost the tourism sector in Nigeria.
Mr. Gabe noted that there is no country that is better than Nigeria in tourism if the appropriate bodies take “the Bull by the horn through the harnessing of the country’s tourism sites, adding that product development is key to the sustainable tourism industry.
“Nigeria is heartily endowed with natural tourist sites but it is challenging to know that the country hasn’t harnessed the sites to a brim, forgetting that this would serve as a means to generate revenue and contribute reasonable percentage in injecting of funds to the economy.
“However, this is one amidst other reasons why I think this collaboration is very necessary at this point in time”, he added.
Similarly, Hon Kenn Aklah, the Senior Special Assistant on Events to the Cross River State Governor who was also part of the team said there is need for National Park Service to do more conservation by improving on the facilities crafting on the facilities that would attract tourists to spend days than expected and in turn yielding more revenue for the sector and the government.
“It is high time the National Park Service look inward and map out logical strategies that would attract revenue generation. This would in no small measure boost the tourism sector in Nigeria”.
In the same vein, the International Consultant for the Calabar Carnival, Ambassador Ikeh Ukoh said that the National Park Service should step up by doing all it can to rebrand the Parks and bring the service to a greater lime light.
“It is better we tell our story by our selves rather than foreigners telling the story for us. We need to work on giving the Nigeria tourism sector a new face lift so that the story can be better told and that’s one other reason why we are here soliciting for this over due collaboration”.
He noted that that yearly Calabàr carnival is what sales most outside the country because of the level of packaging and marketing.
Reacting to the Carnival Calabar team, the CG of the National Park Services, Dr Ibrahim Goni expressed delight in all that was said and pledged to support every objective move that will bring NPK to lime light and generate the expected return on investment.
“It’s a great deal to have Nigerians as your team who have passion for their country’s tourism sector.
I have listened to you all and be rest assured that this discussion would be critically looked into perhaps the tourism sector would in deed take a new dimension with this anticipated collaboration if really found worthy”, he expressed.
He said that the private sector will be encouraged to partner with NPk so as to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
