Basically, policy, planning, and governance are triangular friendships necessary in an organization to achieve its identified goals and objectives. Policy is seen as a well thought out plan or course of action, especially one of an organization or government, laid down to guide in the achievement of identified goals and objectives. It is normally regarded as a statement of intent or commitment to the driving vision.

Planning on the other hand is about thinking of and organizing the activities required to achieving a desire goal. It involves the creation and maintenance of a plan, which make it a fundamental property of intelligent behaviour. It is a process of setting goals, developing strategies, and outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish the goals.

Governance on its own part could be defined as a process by which authority is conferred on rulers by which they make rules, and by which those rules are enforced and modified [1]. Also, it is a set of policies, roles, responsibilities and processes that is established in an enterprise to guide, direct, and control how the organization uses technologies to achieve business goals [2].

However, from the above foregoing definitions of the trio, one can deduce that tourism policy, planning, and governance in Nigeria is a process by which tourism sector in Nigeria is managed and controlled by set of regulations, rules and guidelines, directives and development/ promotion objectives and strategies that provide a framework within which the collective and individual decisions directly affecting both short and long-term tourism development and the daily activities in all destinations are taken. Thus, it affects the extent to which all day –to-day operational activities of tourism sector in Nigeria such as marketing, event development, attraction operations and visitor reception programmes are successful.

Tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria are yet to achieve the desired sustainable growth and development of tourism industry. The transformation of the sector into socio-economic viability, dependability and possible alternative to oil which is the current main stay of the Nigeria economy is yet to see the light of the day. This research is to address the perceived causes of this challenge in order to have a virile tourism industry in Nigeria that is capable of improving her economy in all ramifications. These perceived causes include; the ineptitude of the tourism personnel, lackadaisical attitudes of some of the tourism staff, poor funding of tourism sector by the government, lack of serious commitment and dedication, poor policy implementation, corrupt tendencies of tourism officials, policy flip flop.

The overall objective of this study is to examine the effect of poor tourism policy, planning and governance on the development of tourism in Nigeria.

The specific objectives include;

1. To examine the implication of ineptitude of tourism personnel on tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria.

2. To examine the implication of poor funding on tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria.

3. To examine the implication lack of commitment and dedication of tourism personnel on the tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria.

4. To examine implication of poor policy implementation on the development of tourism industry in Nigeria.

5. To examine the implication of corrupt tendencies of tourism officials on the development of tourism industry in Nigeria.

Significance of the study

This study will address the problem of tourism staff incompetence, poor funding of tourism sector by the government, poor policy implementation, uncared attitudes of some tourism staff towards their work, and corrupt tendencies of tourism officials. Furthermore, the study will bring about sanity to tourism industry in Nigeria, and enhance its sustainable growth and development with tremendous positive impact on the Nigeria economy with a view to giving it a jolt to prominence.

Tourism policy provides a framework to guide tourism development actions and it is a strategic declaration of intent within which tourism is expected to develop [3].

Tourism policy, planning and governance were given a serious concern in Nigeria when the tourism master plan was launched in November, 2007. This master plan concisely explains the perceived economic impact of tourism on the Nigeria economy if the policy, planning and governance of tourism were properly executed [4].

The Nigerian institute for hospitality and tourism, which is responsible for the training of tourism professionals, is not properly funded while the country supposed to have at least 500 tourism training schools to produce dedicated professionals [5]. Lack of well baked professionals responsible for the incompetence of Nigeria tourism staff.

The fund allocated to the ministry of tourism, culture and national orientation in 2012 budget was #2.2bn while about 48% of the said amount was released. This is grossly inadequate. Paucity of funds hampers tourism development. For effective organization, there must be spirit of co-operation and sense of commitment to their job. This is also peculiar to tourism industry, as lack of commitment and dedication of personnel will hamper the growth and development of the industry.

According to Adamolekun [6], policy implementation refers to the activities that are carried out in the right established policies. It refers to the process of converting financial, material, technical and human inputs into outputs-goods and services. What usually responsible for poor implementation of policies are critical factors such as communication, resources, disposition or attitudes, and bureaucratic structure. However, poor tourism policy implementation in Nigeria is connected with these stated challenges. Jenkins [3] argues for a framework of tourism policy to facilitate tourism development, such a framework outlines whether the driver of tourism is the public or private sector, the focus is international or domestic tourism, the scale of tourism development and whether integrated or enclave tourism.

Hall [7] argues that the tourism policy process is based on the type of government, its political will to develop tourism, the structure of tourism organizations and the stage of the development of tourism industry.

The methodology used included Strategic Relational Approach (SRA) with identified focus group within the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation and State Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Ogun-State as well as the use of structured survey which involves the preparation of formal lists of questions concerning the study sent to the selected respondents of tourism personnel at their respective ministry.

There are two designs which best suited this research. These are structured questions which were arranged in order of sequence and targeted towards the selected groups. The second design was the interview by personal contact. The structured questions which are the preference in this circumstance were distributed amongst the selected respondents, and then given reasonable time to complete after which they were collected back from them.

Simple comparison of frequency distribution and construction of table for the analysis of data collected from respondents through questionnaires was cautiously followed.

The study sample was obtained through the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), and Ogun-State Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The challenges of tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria demographic data sheets were administered and collected from respondents selected from the Ministry.

This section contains the analyses of the areas of focus that were the subject of the research objectives in this study. Descriptive analyses were conducted to clarify relationships between the scores recorded from the perceived challenges of tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria.

The respondents from the participating departments of the ministry completed the demographic data sheet. The average age of the respondent sampled was 50, with a range of 47 to 53 years. All participating respondents were both males and females with diplomas and degrees. For the requirement of this research, the respondents have had several years of tourism and hospitality experiences [8].

Table 1 shows the analysis of departmental respondents’ demographic data in respect to sex, age, qualification, and experience. The data depicts their levels of education maturity and competence in the tourism sector. This shows that the data collected from them are somewhat reliable and valid.

Table 1: Departmental respondents’ demographic data.

Table 2 shows the number of respondents sampled from each department and the actual number returned. The analysis further showed number of male and female respondents involved as follows; Admin & supplies 50% with average age of 30 years, Finance & Accounts 80% with average age of 32 years, Planning research & Statistics 50% with average age of 36 years, Hospitality & Travel Trade 75% with average age of 34 years, and Marketing and Promotion 35% with average age of 25 years. Above all the total numbers of 30 male and 20 female respondents were involved.

Table 2: Number of respondents sampled from each department

The education demographic data of both male and female staff from the junior to senior staff of the ministry are indicated in the Table 3. The essence is to ensure that all staff from all levels involved in providing useful information on the subject matter.

Table 3: Staff Education’s Demographic data.

Tables 4 and 5 gives Summary of descriptive statistics of the challenges of tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria.

Table 4: Problems of tourism policy, planning and governance Scores by respondents.

Table 5: Summary of descriptive statistics of the challenges of tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria

The above descriptive analysis of challenges of tourism policy, planning and governance in Nigeria clearly show that the results of the variables (causes) obtained from the staff respondents of Nigerian Tourism. Development Corporation (NTDC) and Ogun-State Ministry of Tourism and Culture were favorably in tandem. The findings from respondents showed that; poor funding recorded 60%, corruption 50%, policy somersault and poor implementation 44%, lack of strong commitment and dedication 40%, staff incompetence 16%.

Implication

The implication of this research paper is that tourism in Nigeria will be given a jolt to prominence through absolute amelioration of the identified constraints and challenges by putting in place a strong institution that will be totally committed and dedicated to the course of transformation of tourism to the place of repute.

Tourism today is a service sector that contributes stupendously to the economic growth of the entire world. In Nigeria, there are enormous tourism potentials that can positively drive and transform her socio-economic prowess if well harnessed through effective and efficient policy, planning and governance. However, efforts must be geared towards ensuring that competent staffs that have passion for the sector are involved in the procedures and processes of giving it a jolt to greatness in Nigeria.