October 05, (THEWILL) – The Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John, has promised to collaborate with members of the Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) in the quest to promote Nigeria’s tourist sites and landmarks, including its diverse cultural heritage.
Speaking when she received the executive members of NATOP led by its President, Mrs. Bolaji Mustapha, on Thursday, in Abuja, the Minister expressed her excitement at the focal intention of the Nigerian tour trade practitioners to visit the entire stretch of the country’s vast landscape, to process, understudy, package and promote the various tourism, hospitality, festivals and heritage offerings associated with the Nigerian people to the world and Nigerians in particular.
“We shall partner together, and I do assure you of my ministry’s support and encouragement. Going forward, we shall endeavour to invite and carry your association along in whatever we are going to do. We need you to furnish us with a list of your accredited members and when we are going to present the tourism policy, which we think we need to review, we shall invite NATOP to look at it and further add value to the document,” she said.
On funds to support NATOP’s activities and facilitating efforts to showcase Nigeria at the World Travel Market (WTM), the Minister said the ministry is working around the tourism budget which currently cannot help drive the many pending tourism projects of the ministry and indeed, may impact the ministry’s participation at the global tourism trade event this year in London but assured that at the next budgetary release, Nigeria will take giant steps to showcase her tourism offerings to the world.
“We are constrained financially for now and can’t do much but hopefully by next year’s budget, we will have done our homework well and I assure you that we are going to do many tourism projects together because what you did during the World Tourism Day in Lagos was the way to go in promoting Nigeria, which is very dear to my heart,” the Minister said.
Earlier, the NATOP President, who visited the Tourism Minister in the company of her Deputy, Ms Geraldine Itoe; National Publicity Secretary, Onyeka John; Financial Secretary, Ms Ogugua Anobili; and Deputy National Secretary, Joy Alexander Oziegbe, briefed the Minister on the association’s short and long-term plans to market Nigeria’s rich tourism assets and its intention to participate at the World Travel Market.
“We are here to assure you and the ministry of our partnership and collaboration to market Nigeria’s diverse offerings cutting across cultural heritage, ecological tourism, hospitality, festivals, and fashion. We are interested in sharing our knowledge concerning Nigerian tourism policy and other industry-related concerns, which would help reposition our tourism within the domestic and international space,” she explained.
Mustapha said the association would reinvent the strategic socio-economic importance of the tourism economy to job creation and empowerment of the people, with eyes on improved global ranking as a destination to visit in Africa.
“We have started looking inwards, and in weeks and months to come, NATOP will embark on a project to rediscover Nigeria and, with it, galvanise the states and local authorities and the Nigerian people to think of Nigeria’s culture and tourism first. Nigeria tourism is important to us, and we want to have your ministry’s backing in this noble effort,” the NATOP President added.
Janefrances Ebere Chibuzor is a Tourism Writer at THEWILL
