Ojo-Lanre, tourism stakeholders chart tourism way forward

Celebrities in Nigeria tourism sector have expressed optimism that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the sector, Covid-19 pandemic challenges notwithstanding.

The Director General, Ekiti State Council for Arts and Culture, Wale Ojo-Lanre, has urged the Federal Government to create separate Ministry of Tourism to enable the industry thrive better.

Ojo-Lanre made the call during a virtual interaction , with theme: “Post-COVID-19: A Fresh Start for Tourism in Nigeria,” organised by the Nigeria Travel Week and Travelscope Magazine.

He said the tourism industry had only enjoyed minimal attention from the government because it had been merged with information.

He noted that a separate ministry is necessary to harness the full potential of the industry for revenue generation, while calling for the establishment of legal framework for the industry, which would spell out the jurisdiction of all practitioners in the industry.

According to him, this would give room for a more organised industry, where the practitioners and government would know their limits.

He said: “We urge President Muhammadu Buhari to look into this issue of tourism being merged with information sector.

“We need a separate tourism ministry and the establishment of a legal framework to make the industry flourish.

“Tourism cannot work without legal framework.

“The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation has been working with an archaic military degree put in place over 40 years now.

“No tourism association or organisation has legal backing.

“When the legal framework is in place, investors will not exercise fear to commit their finances to tourism growth in any community

He said that Ekiti State was opened for investors as Governor Kayode Fayemi had put necessary action in place to provide tourism legal framework.

Ekiti State is ready to receive tourists and investors. Government is ready and willing to provide the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Uphold African culture to curb sexual violence, rape — NCAC

“Ekiti is a paragon of tourism activities. We have the home of Ifa, Osun and Ogun in Ekiti State, where people can familiarise themselves with history.

We have lots of tourists sights like the Ikogosi Warm Spring, Arinta Waterfall, Olosunta Hill, Esa Cave, mountains and hills good for hiking.”

Lagos State Representative, Hassan Zakari, has urged tourism industry players to boost country inbound tourism, noting that tourism sites in Nigeria are in shamble and not accessible.

He explained that for tourism to grow, the practitioners need to come up with domestic tourism master plan. “We will involve destination managers to draw up domestic tourism master plan and it must be invented chronologically.

There should be collaboration between the government and tour operators. Security and pricing should be made available such that it would attracts foreigners.

We sell destinations that are safe for the tourists. We do not have coherent plan to grow tourism. There must be implementing of tourism master plan,” he added.

President, National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) Susan Akporiaye, said that ‘NANTA will continue on training as a way of giving back to the travel agencies. We are the Dubai biggest market.

The problem of the industry is lack of collaboration in the past years. We are trying to push but there are so many discouragement at the front, now even the governments are talking about looking inward to push domestic tourism.’

Continuing, she said: “We have a very huge gap when it comes to promotion of domestic tourism. Tour operators should see this as the beginning of better tourism days in Nigeria.”

The virtual interactive meeting featured tourism and travel stakeholders such as Director General , Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation,NTDC, Folorunsho Coker, General Manager, Ibom Hotel & Golf Resort Brian Efa, Regional General Manager, Hard Rock Cafe & Shiro Dhiren Pawar among others.

Also on the virtual conference co-host were Founder, Nigeria Travel Week Efetebo Awhana and Chief Executive Officer Travelscope Magazine John Olumuyiwa Omololu.