The Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) has launched a TRIAC mandate to reposition the group for sustainable growth of the tourism industry.
The National President, Mr. Nkereuwem Onung, who made the disclosure at the National Tourism Transportation Summit and Expo held in the Abuja on Thursday, explained that the TRIAC entailed tourism marketing, research and development, insurance policy, advocacy and capacity building.
The group’s leader was time to give meaning to tourism in terms of practical innovation and creativity that will re-engage and give stakeholders the pride of place in the tourism business and its allied sector.
Onung said the launching of the mandate was done to grow domestic tourism market and position Nigeria as a leading business tourist destination in Africa, stressing that the TRIAC mandate will involve a strategic tourism marketing through the public and private sector partnership.
He further pointed out that this was for the identification of the needs, wants and satisfaction of the segments market in the planning and designing of local, regional, national and international tourism products.
He said: ”Nigeria is a dynamic entity with diverse opportunities and market segments and to actually give the best to the consumers of our rich and robust potentialities. There is a serious need for a comprehensive marketing model to basically meet the demands of the various target markets,” he said.
The FTAN President identified research and development as major factors in determining the pace and workability of the mandate, adding that this will help in measuring and assessing information for decision making, understanding the characteristics, preferences, attitudes and opinions of visitors.
In addition, Onung noted that insurance was an unavoidable component of tourism advisory as it was a way of providing travel safety and guaranteeing of compensation.
He explained that insurance would take care of making the industry safe for both the sellers and buyers tourism products and services irrespective of the demography of stakeholders and market segments,
On how the group intends to achieve the objectives of the initiative, he said: “FTAN with embark on lobbying government and other stakeholders in order to gain support and make recommendations.
“We are also seriously looking into capacity building as a major yard stick in changing attitudes and behaviours through imparting knowledge and developing skills of persons in the industry.
“On this ground, we have had talk with different industry based stakeholders on collaborations on making the capacity building bid a worthwhile effort to position the federation”, the FTAN leader added.
