IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION IN TOURISM PROMOTION

          A child whether conceived in Africa, America, Asia or Europe is born without knowledge of “Culture”. From the beginning of time, most pre-literate societies had little or no form of learning system, or what one would ordinarily call school or teachers. As societies grew more complex however, the quality of knowledge to be passed on from one generation to the next became more than any person can know, and hence there must evolve more selective and efficient means of cultural transmission. Education is therefore designed to guide the society in learning a culture, molding the behavioral pattern of the society and putting a society on the right direction. With time, society became ever more importance to education and it also began to formulate the overall objective, content, organization and strategies of education. In this manner, education as a district disciple came into being and it is constantly been defined and redefined in various countries to meet the national goals and aspirations. Nigeria as a country has gone along way in providing good education system to us citizens. Government have for years put more efforts in the development of education both financially and otherwise. These notwithstanding, the Federal Ministry of Education have contributed their own quota for the betterment of our education policy which has yet meet its desirable goals.

However, for a sustainable tourism development in Nigeria, proper education programmed should not be neglected. Education is a very vital option in the development of our tourism industry. Nigeria which is blessed with both natural and cultural attractions has a lot to showcase to the entire world. The most important thing is that about 70% of our tourism potentials are mainly located in our rural areas thereby facing negligence which causes to the destruction and fading of these attractions. Our cultural attractions are one of the best in the world. But it is now facing a big problem of uncontinueity due to poor education of our people. Some of our natural attractions faces the problem of undeveloped, thereby attract low or no tourist to these destinations. We cannot over emphasize on this issue, proper education programme should be put in place in educating the Nigerian public about the importance of tourism both in economic and human resource development of these country.

Without missing words, Nigeria is looking forward in becoming one of the ten richest economic countries of the world by 20, 2020, tourism being one of the fastest growing economic institutions in the world should not be neglected in this aspect. Educating the Nigerian public is very vital on the protection, preservation and maintenance of these wonderful gifts which God has endowened us with. The impediment Nigeria as a country faces in tourism development is un-professionalized staff in the industry. The human resource structure of our tourism industry is not encouraging. Some of the personnel working under this industry both in the federal, state and local government levels know nothing about tourism. This is the major impediment which the tourism industry in Nigeria is suffering today. The cause of this impediment is low education programmes by our federal ministry of culture and tourism, the federal ministry of education, other stake holders and Tourism experts. Education is very important in every aspect of human life. It uplift’s a society and make them a vital tool in the development of any country or state. For our tourism industry to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), our government should consider education as one of the tools for promoting tourism.

For Nigeria to have a sustainable tourism development these facts need to be considered;

·                    Tourism courses should be introduced in the curriculum of various education levels be it primary, secondary and tertiary education programme in Nigeria. This I believe will help to have more graduates capable of putting in place sustainable tourism plan in the country, not only graduates, but also adequate manpower and human resources management in our tourism industry.

·                    The media has relevant role to play in the education of the Nigeria public on the relevance of our tourism potentials. These tourist attractions can be documented and viewed in our various television stations throughout the country. They can be published in our various newspapers, magazines, journals, text books e.t.c. for the education of our people. Educating our people through this medium will make them to become the custodian of these tourist attractions that are found within their community.

·                    Tourism agencies and industries in Nigeria should at least organize a training programme like; seminars, workshops, conferences e.t.c. for their staff, school children, people in the local communities’ e.t.c. This will help in educating the public on how to maintain and manage various tourism potentials within their domain.

·                    Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Nigerian Tourism Development Cooperation (NTDC) and other relevant agencies in the tourism industry in Nigeria should be organizing a workshop especially in our local communities, educating them on the relevance of those attractions located within their community. Making them to understand that these attractions contributes to the economic development of their community and the country at large. The workshop can also be used in telling the local community that these tourist attractions both cultural and natural attractions puts their name in the world heritage list if properly harnessed. For instance, the state that has put their cultural heritage into the world heritage list are Osun State – Osun  Osogbo festival,  The Sukur Kingdom in Adamawa State e.t.c. This will make the communities to look after these materials of great importance.

Finally, development cannot be completed without education. Education is a vital tool in the sustainable development of any country. For our tourism industry to compete favorably with its counterparts across the world, good education policy should be endorsed for the promotion of our tourism industry. We cannot continue loosing what we have because of illiteracy among our people, but let us all join hands together to make our beloved country Nigeria tourist heaven.

         

FROM: EZEANI JOHNPAUL.E

 WROTE FROM: ENUGU

                            CORPER

                     08063502100