By Kenneth Ehigiator

Experts have expressed concern over the inability of airlines in Nigeria to drive the tourism sector.

Rising from the just-concluded African Travel Market, popularly known as Akwaaba, in Lagos, the experts noted the inter-woven nature of aviation and tourism, but lamented the lack of access to the country’s tourism outposts by tourists due to the capacity problems of airlines in the country.

Director-General, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, NTDC, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, who bared his mind on the issue, mooted the need for domestic airlines in the country to merge, so they could form into formidable carriers to compete with foreign carriers and provide easy access to tourists coming into the country.

According to him, the idea of running affairs alone by individual airlines has created problems of capacity and inability of tourists to access tourists’ sites in the country.

Runsewe, who lauded the ability of organisers of Akwaaba to launch the country into international tourism map, noted that Nigeria had so many tourism destinations that could fetch her foreign exchange, if only the airlines braced up to the occasion.

Organiser of Akwaaba, Mr. Ikechi Uko, noted that airlines in the country were narrowing the space for the tourism industry to thrive.

Consequently, he spoke of the need for the nation to have a national carrier that could drive its tourism potentials.

Ikechi noted that with the exception of Ethiopia, African countries with viable national carriers had used their airlines to develop their tourism industry, citing Kenya and South Africa as two of such countries.

He said the nation’s tourism sector would blossom, if there was a viable national carrier to distribute tourists to all the nation’s tourist sites.

He lamented that Nigeria currently had just three local airlines, stressing this was not enough to serve its huge population, let alone serve foreign tourists visiting the country.