Tourism Icon, Otunba Olawanle Akinboboye, has rolled out ‘Security Tour Guides’, as tourism product for week 20. Akinboboye revealed that this product is designed to address something that is at the forefront of everyone’s mind when they think of traveling within Nigeria. And that is, ‘security’.
He mentioned that the perception of security is a major determinant in a tourist’s decision to visit a place, and acts as a deciding force when selecting the activities that can be conducted at any tourism destination.
Otunba Olawanle Akinboboye opined that, since the terrorism incident in 2002, involving the World Trade Centre, which is popularly referred to as 9/11, the world as a whole, has focused on putting in place measures to ensure that tourism locations and destinations are kept secure and can be visited safely by tourists.
This is because countries are aware that international tourists, with a myriad of destinations to visit, will gravitate towards those countries they consider safe.
Obviously, in recent times, Nigeria has faced escalating security challenges. However, and without minimizing the severity of the situation, it should still be possible to grow Nigeria’s tourism industry by creating safe tourism zones that are constantly monitored for, and managed in relation to security threats using technology and personnel.
In his view, if Nigeria wants to promote domestic and international tourism, it must ensure that tourists are aware they can safely visit various tourist attractions and destinations within the country.
The tourism icon said, he recommends that, in promoting Nigerian tourism, tour operators should focus on creating and selling tour packages that allow groups of tourists to safely visit carefully selected attractions and destinations within Nigeria, under the watch of Security Tour Guides.
He explained that ‘Security Tour Guides’ are persons who are carefully trained and equipped to ensure the safety of tourists while they are in the selected tourism zones and also while in transit to and from such zones .
These Guides will have been trained and equipped to ensure that they are constantly scanning the environment and ensuring that any perceived security threats are identified and addressed. They will also be equipped with trackers and locators and taught various unarmed combat techniques.
He then mentioned that, by using ‘Security Tourist Guides,’ the tourism industry will be generating additional employment in Nigeria.
“Given our population, the abundance of natural attractions within our country and the scope for creating jobs in Nigeria, we will, by using this Product, definitely be taking advantage of our advantages, as our international tourism industry grows,” Otunba Olawanle Akinboboye added.
