Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State has  implored Nigerians to embrace domestic tourism instead of the current trend of holidaying abroad.

Imoke told a team of visiting journalists that the mindset of the average Nigerian that good tourism destinations were outside the country was incorrect.

He said Nigeria was blessed with some sites much better than those abroad.

According to the governor, if one per cent of Nigerians choose to visit Cross River’s tourist destinations in a year, it will mean a record 1.6 million visitors.

This, he said, was in addition to pocket-friendly costs which exclude visa fees and international flight charges.

Imoke also urged the Federal Government to evolve a tourism policy so that the federal might could be visible in developing the sector.

He noted that pristine and unique tourism destinations were in remote areas, citing the state’s famous Obudu Cattle Ranch Resort tucked away in a mountainous region with the challenge of accessibility.

The governor said the major roads leading to the Obudu ranch were federal roads, “with none of them in any shape worth mentioning.

He lamented that the government at the centre had not done enough to encourage tourism.

Imoke said that though Cross River was not as rich as most south-south states, his administration was being proactive in providing the enabling environment that would attract big investors so as to improve the living standard of the people.

He said that his administration had looked inwards by increasing its internally generated revenue from a mere N200 million monthly to about N2 billion presently.

The governor added that the enabling environment for big multinationals to invest in the state was being provided and that this had started providing results.

He said that the three oil palm plantations established by international agrobusiness giant, Wilmer, in conjunction with PZ Cussons, could be seen as life-changing ventures that would positively impact Cross River, Nigeria and the ECOWAS sub-region.

Imoke said he had visited a Wilmer plantation in Indonesia that had 17,000 direct employees, comparing this with the entire 20,000 civil servants in Cross River.

The Wilmer/Cussons plantations in the state, he added, had already taken thousands of youths off the streets and given them a means of livelihood.

Imoke said that it was with a view to providing employment that he insisted that the full value chain of the palm oil processing— from the crops to the refining plants— should be domiciled in Cross River.

According to the governor, the oil palm plants will generate more than 13,000 direct employment and 33,000 indirect jobs within the next five years when production is expected to reach more than 1,000 tons of refined palm oil daily.

He said that in line with the vision of making the state’s youths employable, a technical/management college has been established that would produce demand-driven graduates that would man the emerging industries.