An Assessment of the Impact of Culture and Tourism on International Public Relations Practice: A Study of Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC)

Abstract

Effective international public relations practice has steadily placed most nations of the world on the path of growth and universal acceptance. It has literally opened a window through which the world can see, appreciate, admire and identify with the prospects and progress of a nation. Just like well packaged products, international public relations programmes need some virile media of communication to convey them to the desired destinations. Two of such reliable but unconventional media that are fast attracting universal recognition and adoption are culture and tourism. Owing to the immense goodwill and favourable publicity enjoyed by different countries of the world through these media, it has thus become imperative for the government of each nation to establish an agency that will directly manage and subsequently put them to maximum use.

In Nigeria, the agency saddled with this responsibility is the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC). Many international relations analysts have had the cause to ask at different fora if the duo of culture and tourism actually have a role to play in the favourable portrayal of a nation’s image. Similarly, some people had expressed doubts as to the effectiveness of culture and tourism as media of international public relations aside from the commonplace conventional media of communication like Radio, Television, Print media etc. This study literally finds out the authenticity or otherwise of these varied views and also assesses the effectiveness of the various cultural programmes of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation in crystallizing the country’s international image.

Keywords: Culture and Tourism, International Public Relations, Media, and Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC).