The Nigerian Tourist Development Corporation, NTDC, has introduced a new technical product dubbed “Tourism Hackathon” in order to re-invent the country’s tourism business in order to spur economic growth. The NTDC Director General, Folorunsho Coker, announced this new invention to journalists at the unveiling on October 25 in Abuja. Coker added that the product is being launched to capitalize on tourism’s economic growth potential. He stated that the policy will give distinctive and innovative solutions to recognized difficulties and gaps across Nigeria’s tourist value chain, utilizing digital tools that will be created at scale over the next 18-24 months.
Tourism has developed to become one of the fastest growing industries throughout the world, he says. This expansion has been fueled by the use of better travel technology and an enhanced holiday lifestyle. Tourism does, in fact, provide great potential. However, in order to effectively exploit tourism’s potential for economic growth, it is necessary to acknowledge that it cannot be returned to previous ways of functioning; there is an urgent need to reflect on and reconsider what we do and how we do it. As a result, they have identified the need to apply technological solutions for sectorial growth across Nigeria’s tourist value chain.
Tour Nigeria was launched the strategic vision to market domestic tourism.
We have a prepared and enormous domestic market for tourist growth domestically, with over 147 million active internet users and a tele-density of about 97%. Why is there a hackathon? In 2017, they launched “Tour Nigeria” as a strategic vision to market domestic tourism across the country, and we also devised an ambitious plan to reinvent the tourism industry through the CHIEF plan, which stands for Corporate Governance, Human Capital Development, Infrastructure Development, Events, and Financing.
This Hackathon will use digital technologies that will be built at scale over the following 18-24 months to give unique and innovative solutions to identified difficulties and gaps across the tourism value chain in Nigeria. Proper pricing, safe payment mechanisms, access to market, customer service and retention, and bookings and reservations are some of the major problems burdening businesses inside the ecosystem, according to Coker. Other concerns raised, according to him, are data collection and analytics, distribution, setup, system issues, supply chain and logistics.
NTDC is to improve the country’s ranking on the World Economic Forum.
Coker emphasized that the NTDC’s mission was to use the rising popularity of digital technology to address persistent issues throughout Nigeria’s tourism value chain in order to raise the nation’s rating on the World Economic Forum competitiveness index. They want to be able to envision a time when all supporting activities, from pre-booking to destination experiences, are fully digitalized, enhancing the travel experience of tourists. This will enable more digital interactions that are backed by data that is shared in a tailored, secure, and private manner among the various players in the tourism ecosystem.
They are looking for concepts that are scalable and sustainable on a use-case basis to achieve this desired purpose. Ideas that include intelligent information integration (Smart Cities), multimodal mobility services, personalized route optimization, ideas that are environmentally conscious, and virtual and augmented reality. Technology offers countless potential, so we’re contacting the tech community to provide fresh concepts for the industry. The project is a partnership between the public and commercial sectors, with the former contributing the intellectual talent and the latter providing the resources necessary for the ideas to succeed.
The hackathon creates a huge opportunity for selected developers.
The hackathon presents a tremendous opportunity for carefully chosen development companies from the six geopolitical regions of the nation to think creatively and develop significant digital tools that will be helpful in order to address some of the frictions and dislocations experienced throughout the industry. We firmly believe that by doing this, we can accomplish all of these goals with the help of the UNWTO and, most crucially, the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.
Related Link
YT: Website
