Nigeria News: World Tourism Day
Nigeria raps UNWTO over its tourism pioneer who initiated “World Tourism Day”
The Nigeria’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation has said it has written to the United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO] to remind the body of its 2006 promise to honor the late Ignatius Amaduwa Atigbi, a Nigerian who during his days as the head of the country tourism agency and chairman of Africa Travel Commission proposed the idea of marking September 27 of every year as “World Tourism Day.”
The letter dated August 11, 2009, read, “ I write to remind the authority of the United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO], under the leadership of Mr. Taleb Rifai of its earlier promise to honor the late Nigerian tourism czar.”
The ministry noted that UNWTO in its letter dated September 29th, 2006, by the former secretary general, Mr. Francesco Frangialli, stated, “I would like to commemorate the late Ignatius Amaduwa Atigbi, former director general, Nigeria Tourist Association [NTA], now Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation [NTDC] and chairman African Travel Commission”.
UNWTO explained that in 1971, in Ankara, Turkey, Mr. Atigbi proposed the creation of the World Tourism Day at the XXII General Assembly of the International Union of Official Travel Organization [IUOTO], now United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO] and therefore September 27 has become an internationally recognized annual event with the aim to celebrate worldwide the phenomenon that is tourism.
The ministry also pointed out in its letter that the plan to honor Atigbi at the commemoration exhibition focused on the theme: 1946-2006-IUOTO-UNWTO-sixty years of institutionalization for World Tourism and Thirty Years Headquartered in Madrid on Wednesday, December 13, 2006, was never fulfilled.
Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation Alhaji Bello Gada, however, expressed his willingness to ensure that as Ghana hosts this year’s World Tourism Day commemoration, which incidentally is the 30th anniversary with a theme-Celebrating Diversity, be used by the UNWTO to fulfill its promise to the late Ignatius Amaduwa Atigbi and to Nigeria.
The minister pledges his ministry’s support to the UNWTO in achieving the aforementioned goal in Ghana next month.
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