Mrs Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf, Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture has commended the executive members of Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) Lagos chapter over the review of Lagos State tourism master plan.
The commissioner gave the commendation as FTAN was handing over the reviewed copy of the master plan to the state government at the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos State.
Akinbile-Yusuf commended the association as partners and stakeholders who had worked hard in putting tourism in the right path in Lagos State and even across the federation.
Chief Ayo Olumoko, FTAN Vice President, South-West Zone made this known on Wednesday in a statement to newsmen.
Considering the review, Akinbile-Yusuf said she was confident that the work done would be able to put the state on the world map of tourism.
She said that the work would be further reviewed thoroughly and presented to the state governor as well as the State House of Assembly.
Mr Gbenga Sunmonu, the FTAN Coordinator, Lagos chapter said that the mandate of the State Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture was for FTAN to go through the masterplan and come up with an ease of implementation.
Sunmonu said FTAN was also to look at how the ministry could sell the tourism masterplan wholesomely to the state and be beneficial to the industry players as well as to the Nigerian economy.
He appreciated the commissioner for the opportunity and honour given to the stakeholders to participate in such a task knowing that tourism was a private sector driven enterprise.
Sunmonu also commended the developers of the master plan and the Lagos State Government for investing resources to come up with the document, adding that it was indeed the future of tourism in Lagos.
He said that there were gaps in the document as they were done in the absence of industry players and without them it would be difficult to implement the document.
“The initial document set goals to put Lagos State among the top five destinations in Africa has been surpassed by the state government.
“The goal now is to be the first in Africa and to position the state in the global map as Lagos has huge tourism resources such as beautiful coastal lines, eco-tourism, rich cultural heritage and history.
“Without proper planning and capacity building, it will be difficult to achieve the objectives of the master plan.
“The hospitality business is also left out; the industry contributed about 40 per cent of the Internally Generated Revenue in tax returns.
“What FTAN has done is to compress the 107 pages document into 42 pages for the ministry to have the ease to implement,’’ he said.
Sunmonu said that the stakeholders had also taken ownership of the document knowing that the industry players were the drivers of tourism.
He urged the state ministry of tourism to implement policies that would further boost tourism development in the state and change those acts that were detrimental to the development of the sector.
Olumoko appreciated the Lagos State Government and the Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture for championing this course of carrying the stakeholders along.
He urged the tourism stakeholders to respect that act and work unanimously with the ministry to achieve common goals.
Mr Solomon Bonus, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Tourism, Arts and Culture expressed his excitement over the development between the ministry and FTAN.
He assured FTAN of the ministry’s willingness to work with them as critical stakeholders.