Tourism without a roadmap: Is Nigeria ready to navigate the next phase?
By Joan Odafe, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
In 2025, industry leaders warned that Nigeria’s tourism surge—festivals, hotels, and investments—expanded rapidly, yet without strategic coordination or a guiding national framework.
A reality, many warned, that was eroding investor confidence, stunting job creation, and jeopardising the sector’s long‑term viability.
At the heart of the concern is Nigeria’s failure to develop or enact a workable National Tourism Master Plan, a blueprint experts say is essential for shaping policy, directing infrastructure, drawing investment, and boosting the nation’s global tourism profile.
Femi Fadina, President of the Association of Tourism Practitioners of Nigeria says Nigeria is running tourism without a clearly defined vision, measurable targets, or a coordinated development pathway.
Fadina says the absence of a master plan has made tourism development fragmented, personality-driven, and highly reactive instead of being strategic and sustainable.
He notes that policies changed with administrations, projects lack continuity and stakeholders operate in silos, leading to wasted resources and missed economic opportunities.
This fragmentation, stakeholders say, has real socio-economic consequences.
In spite of Nigeria’s abundance of festivals, heritage sites, creative talent and growing hospitality footprint, tourism’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)remains marginal compared to nations such as Kenya, Morocco and South Africa.
Jobs that could have been created across host communities, transport, food supply, entertainment and crafts are lost, while potential foreign exchange earnings remain largely untapped.
Fadina warns that the lack of structure has also weakened investor confidence.
“Serious investors do not commit capital where there is no long-term policy direction, enabling legal framework, or infrastructure blueprint,” he says.
For Fadina, the problem goes deeper than events, he says Nigeria lacks a unified destination brand.
“We are not projecting a consistent narrative of who we are, what experiences define us, and why we should be a preferred destination.
“Without this, Nigeria remains largely invisible in global tourism markets, in spite of its rich history, landscapes, cultures and creative industries.”
He also decries the absence of frameworks for community participation, heritage preservation, tourism education and sustainability, warning that the country is losing revenue, jobs, cultural preservation opportunities, and the chance to position tourism as a strong contributor to the GDP.
“Nigeria urgently needs to treat tourism as a serious economic infrastructure, not a ceremonial sector,” Fadina says.
On recommendations, Fadina calls for a stakeholder-driven and research-based National Tourism Master Plan with a 15 to 20 year vision, phased milestones, and tourism clusters across the six geopolitical zones.
Others are infrastructure roadmaps, regulatory standards, PPP funding models, branding strategies, community inclusion, human capacity development, and a security and crisis management framework.
Fadina also advocates legislative backing and the creation of a strong national tourism institution to drive implementation and ensure continuity across administrations.
He urged stakeholders to ensure that the implementation must not sit on paper.
This uncertainty persists even as states roll out projects independently, sometimes duplicating efforts or competing rather than collaborating.
The issue is not lost on policymakers.
In Lagos State,Mr Solomon Bonu, Chairman of the House of Assembly Committee on Tourism, Arts and Culture,urges the implementation of the state’s Tourism Master Plan to reposition it as a global destination and maximise returns.
According to Bonu, the plan, already enacted into law, offers a comprehensive framework integrating transport, agro-tourism and medical tourism.
“Tourism is all about transportation. Is transportation taking its course in the area of tourism?
“We have an agro-tourism sector. Is that taking place?
“We even have medical tourism. Is that taking place and other things?
“Tourism goes beyond that,” he says.
Bonu emphasises that without strategic execution, even existing plans will fail to deliver economic impact.
The lawmaker calls for stronger private sector collaboration, increased budgetary support and transparency in spending.
“If well-funded, the industry can become a significant economic driver for the state,” he says.
Bonu, on his part, emphasises execution at sub-national level, urging collaboration with the private sector, increased funding, accountability and integration of transport, agro-tourism and medical tourism into tourism planning.
Yet, beyond Lagos, stakeholders say Nigeria still lacks a national framework to coordinate such efforts.
Acknowledging the challenges in the sector, The Founder of Creative Naija, Frank Meke, says, “Where you don’t have a tourism master plan, it’s like operating in the dark.”
Meke says the country is not profiting from its growing number of cultural festivals because of lack of policy frameworks, insecurity and mismanaged events.
According to him, a master plan should guide investment, infrastructure and private sector engagement, identify tourism clusters, outline funding mechanisms and drive marketing strategies.
“A master plan is a barometer, it helps identify critical areas of intervention, location of cultural tourism opportunities, plan funding mechanisms and proffer marketing and promotion penetration strategies,” he says.
The consequences of this gap are evident. In spite of heavy spending by states and communities on festivals, Nigeria has struggled to convert events into sustained tourism flows, repeat visitation and lasting community income.
Meke also raises concerns over security, warning that Nigeria has yet to host large-scale international festivals such as the proposed Motherland Festival earlier announced by President Bola Tinubu.
“The insecurity question must be addressed frontly.
“If we can’t host for now, meaning there’s no foreseeable gains,” he says.
For Meke, the tourism master plan should run for a minimum period of three to five years, and a maximum of 10 years, reviewable, with clear sustainability actions and responsibilities.
He insists that security must be prioritised if Nigeria hopes to host profitable international events.
As 2025 draws to a close, the message from stakeholders is strikingly consistent: Nigeria’s tourism sector is growing, but without direction.
With hotels rising, festivals multiplying and creative industries booming, stakeholders warn that the absence of a national compass could deepen inefficiencies and erode long-term gains.
Nigeria, they argue, has the history, heritage, culture, people, creativity, landscapes, and market strength.
“What we lack is structure, intent, and disciplined execution,” they say.
The question for policymakers as the country steps into a new year is whether tourism will continue to “operate in the dark”, or finally be guided by a master plan capable of unlocking jobs, investment, community development and national pride. (NANFeatures)
****If used, credit NAN and the writer****
