Lessons from Dubai

Nigeria is immensely blessed with natural
endowments. Unfortunately, our tourism
potentials have been greatly under-
developed as various tiers of government
rely heavily on oil resources.
The question is- what happens to great
tourist sites like Azurnini Blue River in
Arochukwu, Abia State; the cave of the
famous long juju oracle; lgbo-Ukwu;
Yankari National Park, and Obudu Cattle
Ranch among others.
Although the Nigerian Tourism
Development Corporation has put in place
a lot of activities to make the industry
viable, truth is over-concentration on oil
resources has diminished the potentials of
the tourism sector.
One cannot but wonder why a country like
the United Arab Emirates has succeeded in
turning its tourism sites into a goldmine.
Sites like Burj Khalifa, the world tallest
building located in Dubai and the popular
desert have continued to attract tourists
from all parts of the world with attendant
foreign exchange inflow. Nigeria needs to
tap into its tourism potentials like UAE if it
truly desires to break the over-reliance on
oil.