Rich Potentials, Weak Development

It was certainly with a marked degree of pride that Cameroon joined the rest of the international community yesterday to celebrate World Tourism Day.

For a country that is endowed with so much tourist potentials; it was but quite normal to be part of the international banquet. And so, a medley of activities were organised to mark the event with particular focus on cleansing the sector.

Of course, there is surely nothing very wrong in celebrating a day as significant as this but the trouble is that Cameroon with its enormous potentials has little to show to the World. The reason is simply, the so called potentials for which the country has been beating its chest remain far undeveloped. Potentials, a well placed American diplomat said some years ago, do not develop a country. The twin lakes of Kupe Muanenguba in the South West Region, the crater lakes of the North West, the beaches of Limbe and Kribi, and the natural features of the Northern Regions mean nothing if they are left fallow.

Even though the country obtained the figure that makes it a tourism destination, the whole idea of developing the sector remains hypothetical for most of the part. All that it takes to make a country a permanent destination leaves much to be desired. The government has been quite worried about it. The tourism industry is not the affair the government alone so to say. Its role is simply that of coordination and policy formulation. In effect, tourism is business that can best be handled by the private sector.

Talk of tourism and minds will quickly run to infrastructures and services such as hotels, restaurants, transportation and sports among others. Tourism, one must remember, is an activity done by an individual or a group of individuals, which entails movement from one place to another for a specific task including entertainment and increasing knowledge on countries, cultures and history. As an activity that has a direct impact on the revenue of the State, it remains imperative to ensure its development and enhance all efforts aimed at that.