The emergence of Tourism phenomenon as a viable path to socio-economic development led to a fundamental paradigm shift towards service economy worldwide.  On realization that Nigeria has all it takes to develop Tourism, given her rich natural and cultural resources, there has been expressed desire and wish to sustain the industry through Institutional capacity building.

Therefore, for sustainable tourism development to take place, the human capital which is the bedrock of the industry must be produced in quality, range and number consistent with international best practices.  It is against this background that NIHOTOUR was established in 1987, following a tripartite project agreement NIR/85/004 signed that year between the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) as part of a comprehensive approach to tourism development in the country.