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The National Council for Arts and Culture has cemented a pact with Scal Club International; a professional organization whose mandate is to promote global tourism and friendship and harness the huge tourism potentials in Nigeria for the global market.

This agreement was reached when the Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Segun Runsewe received in audience a delegation from Scal Club International, a non- governmental organization promoting global tourism in his office in Abuja.

Runsewe who thanked the delegation for the visit said Nigeria, with enormous tourism potentials and home to about 250 ethnic groups and 500 distinct languages, endowed with a plethora of historical sites, monuments, and richly diverse cultural heritages is a tourist heaven

He however lamented that despite its huge potentials, tourism as an alternative source of revenue to crude oil has been neglected for many years owing to the country’s heavy reliance on the mono product stressing that in many other countries culture and tourism is the main stay of their economy.

Otunba Runsewe revealed that the benefits to Nigeria’s tourism sector would be enormous if its tourism potentials is well harnessed and marketed as a veritable tourist destination.

The Director General maintained that the value chain of Nigeria’s tourism potentials range from the hospitality sector to aviation and transportation, destination management, souvenir production, event packaging, carnivals, festivals and cultural promotions, among others and the opportunities of leveraging this key growth sector to create jobs and add to the nation’s GDP are limitless as no one is a failure in the sector.

Otunba Runsewe who doubles as the President of World Crafts Council for African Region opined that the platform created by Skal International will help in marketing the nation’s unique cultural heritage, vibrant traditions, and warm hospitality to the world and also create a distinct and compelling brand identity through Collaborative marketing campaigns, both domestically and internationally.

Earlier in his speech, the head of the delegation and president of the group Mr Daisi Olotu said the group was at the culture house to identify with Otunba Runsewe who has remained a constant phenomenon in the Tourism, Arts and Culture space in Nigeria.

He said the group was proud be associated with Nigeria’s favourite Culture and Tourism ambassador whose passion and drive on his job in this sector is evidently unrivaled.

The head of the delegation revealed that Scal Club International with headquarters in Torremolinos,Spain was founded 89 years ago with a mandate to promote global tourism and friendship and unite all sectors of the tourism industry.

He also said that the association consists of Chief Executives and Senior Managers who are professionally engaged in the business of Hotel, Car hire, travels and tours and global tourism.

Mr Olotu used the forum to inform the Director General of the organisation’s national joint meeting coming up on 12 and 13 of October, 2023 and also seek ways of collaboration with NCAC to harness and market Nigeria’s tourism potentials globally.

The visit featured an interactive session where the visitors bore their minds on sundry challenges militating against their smooth operations and ways to overcome them.

ABUJA BUSINESS REPORTS NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINE