The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, NTDC, yesterday declared its intension to open Nigeria's abundant tourist sites to citizens of Ukraine in the corporation's desire to reposition the tourism sector.

The director-general of NTDC, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, made the declaration during a courtesy visit by Pastor Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian-born tourism consultant and the owner of the largest Pentecostal Church in Europe, Embassy of God For All Nations with headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine, who led a delegation of Ukrainians to NTDC headquarters in Abuja.

Adelaja said Nigeria requires national desperation, beyond mere political will to lift the tourism sector to an enviable height, and urged the Nigerian government through her immigration agency to remove Red Tape and possibly waive visa for Europeans as an incentive to boost inflow of foreign tourists.

Recounting his experience, Pastor Adelaja said he has helped Israel to attract tourists, raising inflow from 500,000 tourists to 15 million in one year. 'We used to have 500,000 tourists but with visa waiver for Europeans who have the money to spend, we raised the number to 15 million in one year. I have signed similar agreement with Ukraine and we have waived visas for Canada and other European countries."

To do same for Nigeria, Pastor Adelaja said he would have to be commissioned by the appropriate government agency, to enable him use his wide contracts in Europe and America to attract international tourists to Nigeria's abundant tourists sites. We could bring people with investment, microfinance, packages, we could train Nigerians in values and virtues and bring standard to service as well as people with humanitarian aid", Adelaja said.

In his remark, the director-general of NTDC, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, said some 17 countries of the world have identified tourism as a sector that can turn the fortunes of their economies around, hence the huge investment in the sector, and cited Dubai in the United Arab Emirate as a classical example.

Otunba Runsewe pledged his corporation's commitment to partnering the Ukrainian government to raise inflow of tourists between the two countries and later took his visitors round the NTDC tourism village, Art Gallery and to assess the level of progress in the on-going medical test for NTDC staff to ascertain their health statuses for optimal productivity.

The Ukrainian visitors lauded Runsewe's innovativeness and doggedness at revamping the tourism sector, promising to take the message of Nigeria's hospitality to their home country.