TOWARDS A PATRIOTIC PORTRAYAL IN NOLLYWOOD FILMS: ITS PROSPECTS IN ENHANCING TOURISM IN NIGERIA

Monijesu Ebube

Abstract

The strength of the tourism industry of any nation goes a long way in strengthening its economy, culture, and socio-political prowess through the good image portrayed at home and abroad. Over decades, tourism has been one of the major avenues of packaging and marketing a people alongside their culture and traditions. Nigeria has a rich culture, which is seen in various aspects of her cultural tradition, like in the attire, music, dance, language, festivals and various art forms. To flaunt these rich endowments, a medium is necessary for showcasing, else it will be like a beautiful garden locked up, or rather a beautiful maiden locked up, not allowing a potential suitor to find her. The “suitors” here are the tourists while the” beautiful maiden” is Nigeria. Film, a mass medium, is broadcasted far and wide; as it presents the content it is also introducing the people, the culture, tradition and its location alongside the story to viewers all over the world. Whether it was intended by the director or not, this can serve as a source of promoting the culture of either the people portrayed in the film or its location. This research work intends to seek out the role that the Nigerian movie industry-in collaboration with the nation’s tourism sector-can play in restoring the lucrative tourism industry, which has been grossly neglected for decades due to over-dependence on crude oil. This paper finds that adopting the method of presenting a positive picture of the nation to the outside world, through the film medium is likely to attract tourists to the country; hence enriching the land. It concludes on the premise that with the unfortunate emergence of COVID-19, which has drastically brought down the price of crude oil world-wide; there is urgent need to beef up other sectors like tourism, to guard against such occurrence in the future.

Keywords: Nollywood, Tourism, Film, Location, Film tourists, culture