Terrorism and Tourism; two words that sound alike but never go together.....No tourism market thrives successfully anywhere in the world where terrorism or unrest exists.
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There has just been a report of an explosion in Jos, Nigeria. A bomb exploded in the central area of Jos the Plateau state capital. The heavy explosion was heard at about 2:55pm Tuesday afternoon.
Casualties is said the be high because the explosion happened at a densely populated areas of Ahmadu Bello way where the GSM market is located. Sound of the explosion was heard in Bukuru, which is about 20km from Jos city.
Details of casualties is currently unknown as security agencies had condoned off the areas and rescue operation is ongoing.......
Over the last few years, the Nigerian tourism industry has witnessed a steady decline as a result of terrorism rampaging especially the Northern part. I remember vividly my encounter with one of the UN peace corps members in Benin republic. She was about rounding up her year as a volunteer, and really wanted to visit Nigeria as she had heard a lot of wonderful things about the country.
However for safety reasons, the Peace Corps has warned every one of the volunteers to stay away from Nigeria because of the unrest plaguing the country at the moment.The sad thing is, a lot of potential foreign tourists cannot differentiate between the various parts of Nigeria; while the West, South and Eastern parts of the country may be seemingly safe, this is only known to the people who actually reside in the Nigeria.
As a tourism person, I felt really bad about the entire situation. Here was a potential tourist being discouraged as a result of terrorism. In one of my earlier posts, I ran a story on the fleeing tourists from Kenya; an outcome of the bomb blast the previous night.
Terrorism and unrest is something that should be discouraged and totally frowned upon as it paints the country in very bad light.
Thank you for reading and stay safe.............
I recently presented a paper on sea turtle conservation in parts of Lagos state at a conference in the US. Part of the paper was on ecotourism promotion. A question was raised by one of the participants on insecurity in Nigeria who happened to be an American. As much as I tried to convince her that the southwestern part of Nigeria is safe for tourists, she remained resolute that for her Nigeria is a "no go" tourist destination. She spoke up, whatcabout the silent ones?
ReplyDeleteThat is the impact of terrorism on our nation's nascent tourism industry. We need God's mercy, help and divine intervention. Wont loose hope in Nigeria.
@Anon 18:25 Wow! I wish I could call you by name rather than anonymous.... It's such an unfortunate situation.... not just for the tourism personnel, but for the local community dwellers around the tourism destination. I have witnessed first hand how a local community member built his house from proceeds of his artefacts to foreigners at a popular tour dest in Ghana.
ReplyDeleteI pray God helps Nigeria