Nigeria’s tourism industry needs stronger Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulation, modern digital infrastructure and genuine technological transformation to unlock sustainable growth, former Nigeria Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) Director-General Folarin Coker and other industry stakeholders have said.
The call followed a recent technical network disruption involving the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Nigeria International Travel Portal (NITP), an incident that reportedly disrupted travel operations and left thousands of inbound and outbound passengers stranded at airports across the world.
The disruption, which reportedly affected passengers seeking to board flights to Nigeria, has intensified concerns about the country’s dependence on digital platforms for critical travel processes and exposed vulnerabilities that could undermine confidence in Nigeria as an international tourism and business destination.
Stakeholders who spoke on the issue said the incident should serve as a wake-up call for government agencies and private-sector operators to strengthen technological infrastructure, improve regulatory frameworks and develop more resilient systems capable of supporting Nigeria’s growing travel and tourism needs.
The discussions took place on Villa Square, a special segment of Cre8tive 9Ja, a weekly tourism and culture magazine programme hosted by veteran tourism journalist Frank Meke and Bunmi Bade-Adeniji on Mainland 98.3 FM, Lagos.
Coker, who served as Director-General of the former NTDA, cautioned against treating the digitisation of existing processes as equivalent to genuine transformation, arguing that technology would have limited impact if the underlying systems remained inefficient.
“We should not confuse digitisation with transformation. Putting a broken process online is not reform,” Coker said, stressing that Nigeria’s digital tourism strategy must begin with fixing inefficient processes rather than simply transferring them to online platforms.
According to him, Nigeria’s ultimate objective should be to make travel easier, increase the productivity of tourism businesses and improve the management and development of destinations across the country.
Coker argued that the existing travel and tourism ecosystem should first be critically examined and restructured so that the necessary institutions, processes and infrastructure function effectively before Artificial Intelligence is introduced to deepen and personalise the passenger experience.
He identified several areas where AI could potentially improve the travel ecosystem, including embassy and visa processes, flight reservations, pricing, airport arrival experiences, transportation, destination management and cultural engagement.
“Artificial Intelligence and technology are being mistaken for true development. It is not about another app or website, but about fixing the things that need to be fixed and setting the standards,” he said.
Coker also stressed that technology cannot substitute for fundamental infrastructure, calling on government to address challenges involving roads, security and hospitality standards while developing hotel services capable of competing in the international tourism market.
He said Nigeria needed to build a tourism environment where destinations and tourism products could be easily discovered, accessed and booked without technological failures becoming barriers to travellers, while also leveraging the country’s cultural strengths in music, fashion, food and medical tourism.
Also contributing to the discussion, Managing Director of Global Links Service, Pastor Chinyere Umeasiegbu, shifted attention to the role of airlines in travel disruptions, arguing that operators must take greater responsibility for recurring cancellations and other operational challenges affecting passengers.
Umeasiegbu called for sustainable reforms within the aviation and travel ecosystem, noting that the solution to recurring disruptions should not depend exclusively on Artificial Intelligence or other emerging technologies.
She also urged airlines to improve communication with passengers, particularly during delays and cancellations, and advised travellers to retain screenshots and other evidence of messages received from airlines so they could be presented to relevant authorities when necessary.
Meanwhile, Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Obi Asika, disclosed that the council had established a Council for Creative Technology as part of efforts to position Nigeria’s creative and cultural industries for the digital age.
Asika said the NCAC would also publish a digital roadmap outlining how Artificial Intelligence could be incorporated into the arts and culture sector, with the objective of ensuring that Nigerian cultural identity and intellectual content are properly represented in emerging technologies.
“We need to enrich Artificial Intelligence with the elements of our culture, our history and our content. We need to do this and put the necessary systems in place because, if we don’t, Artificial Intelligence might not be able to see us,” Asika said.
He linked the concern partly to the data and cultural content used to develop and train AI systems, arguing that African and Black cultural knowledge, history and tourism narratives must receive stronger representation within the rapidly evolving global digital ecosystem.
The discussion also extended to food tourism, with Chef Shine highlighting Artificial Intelligence as a potential tool for documenting, preserving, promoting and commercialising Nigeria’s rich culinary heritage for both domestic and international audiences.
“It is important for us to use AI to document our food properly. AI will not take over our food, nor will AI cook the food,” he said, adding that the technology could help create stronger digital records of Nigerian cuisine and expand its reach around the world.
Travel and tourism journalist Okorie Uhuru similarly pointed to the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence on destination marketing, noting that the way tourism products are packaged, promoted and presented to international audiences is changing rapidly.
“The old order of doing things, like packaging a destination tour and marketing tourism, has faded because of Artificial Intelligence. AI has helped us market our tourism to a global audience,” Uhuru said.
He urged tourism businesses, professionals and individuals to adapt to emerging technologies and develop the capacity to use AI strategically in marketing their destinations and tourism products, warning that those who fail to adapt could struggle to remain competitive in an increasingly digital global marketplace.
Professor Wasui Babalola, however, emphasised the importance of ensuring that technological advancement translates into tangible economic and social benefits for Nigerians, calling for policies capable of converting digital innovation into sustainable economic value.
Babalola said Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda must retain a strong human dimension, arguing that technological knowledge and digital processes would have greater impact when they were combined with human skills, creativity, cultural understanding and effective service delivery.
“The knowledge of the digital process should be given with a human element, and that is when our tourism would improve,” Babalola said.
The stakeholders’ positions collectively point to the need for Nigeria to approach Artificial Intelligence as part of a broader tourism transformation strategy rather than as a standalone technological solution. While AI can enhance marketing, bookings, cultural documentation, customer service and destination promotion, its effectiveness ultimately depends on reliable infrastructure, sound regulation, accurate data, strong institutions and efficient human processes.
For Nigeria, the growing debate over AI and tourism therefore presents an opportunity to rethink how technology is deployed across the travel ecosystem—from visas and airline operations to accommodation, transportation, cultural experiences, food tourism and destination marketing—while ensuring that Nigerian culture and economic interests remain central to the digital transformation.