Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer an opportunity to reflect on government-led initiatives for addressing human capital development (HCD) in Cross River State (CRS), the widely acknowledged number one tourism destination in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive case study of the CRS government’s initiative to build and consolidate the human capital base for an emerging tourism destination is presented.
Findings
The findings show that HCD initiatives emerged as a result of a public–private collaboration between CRS and the Citizens Development Corps (CDC).
Originality/value
Using a real-life example, this paper demonstrates how the government in an emerging nation can initiate positive policies to advance HCD in tourism.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.