MOVING BEYOND OIL: TOURISM ECONOMY OPTION AND THE REALITIES OF REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

Purpose- The oil sector has been the main driver of the Nigerian economy due to its dependence on crude oil revenues.Despite the oil boom, Nigeria is still submerged in uncontainable poverty, and scary unemployment complications. It is against this backdrop that this study scrutinizes the extent integration of tourism economy including, feasible tourism regulatory framework can impact positively to unlocking the Nigerian strangling economy. Research Methodology- The study been an exploratory study, reviewed various reports and previous literature in this domain study upon which the study made insightful inferences. Findings- The study finds that tourism economy has the potential to becoming instrument of economic regeneration and stability for Nigeria given its important role in revenue generation, jobs creation, and infrastructure development. Thus, further reveals that Nigeria can only maximise her tourism economy potentials if tourism regulatory framework gear towards environmental sustainability, a secure and safe Nigeria, prioritisation of the tourism sector, and promotion of health and sanitary practices were galvanized. Research Implications– By establishing the need for economic diversification to tourism economy, thisstudy offers an insight on the need for the government of Nigeria to enforce favourable policy environment that supports tourism business investment. Originality: This study is the first to verify the connection between tourism economy, tourism regulatoryframework and economy diversification in Nigeria. The study argues that diversifying to and promoting tourism economy has the capacity to remodeling the Nigeria choking economy.