Nigeria: How Culture, Tourism Can Boost the Economy

Nigeria's vast and rich cultural heritage should be strategically repositioned to partner tourism as its driver to lift the Nigerian economy. Tourism cannot effectively flourish without the cultural components. The desire to position culture and tourism as the lever of Nigeria's economic growth and development rests with the Ministry of Information and Culture as it must plan to mainstream both sectors into a monolithic entity to galvanize national economic development. The effort is in line with the understanding that no nation can really excel without the inclusion of its cultural and tourism parameters in state affairs. Fortunately for the Ministry, cultural tourism had long been identified as Nigeria's area of high comparative advantage.

Nigeria stands a great chance of surviving the current economic meltdown facing the entire globe if it could focus more on cultural tourism. To this end, Nigeria can forge a solid partnership with symbiotic foreign countries for culture and tourism in developing and marketing their potentials to boost patronage of local and foreign tourists. If collaboration and partnership are cultivated between performing artistes, museums and states that are blessed with natural and cultural endowments, the resultant cultural tourism synergy will be presented as exciting performances at vital tourist destinations across the country. As a significant tourist destination, museums are the cultural central and memory bank of any nation, including Nigeria.

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