The Lagos state commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture Pharm Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf says tourism stakeholders need to partner with the government to drive domestic tourism in the state.
Pharm Akinbile-Yussuf was speaking at a 2-day working summit organized by the Lagos state ministry of tourism, arts and culture at Dover hotel in Lagos.
The Commissioner said the purpose for the summit is for stakeholders to proffer solutions on ways the government can participate to grow and market tourism in the state.
“We have taken some pragmatic steps in discovering new tourism and monument sites across the divisions of the state and also identified the need to revamp existing tourism sites. We know that there are still several things we can do in the area of domesticating our tourism potentials, that is the reason for this summit” she said
Speaking on the theme tagged ‘the best of Lagos’ the Commissioner said
“the best of Lagos is in the entertainment and tourism activities. However, the theme also seeks to get the best of Lagos in the area of tourism through meaningful and very engaging discussions that will help bring out the best strategy needed to revamp the entire tourism sector of the state”.
Tourism attractions
On his own part, the Chairman House Committeee on Tourism, Arts and Culture Mr. Fatai Olunwa said the house is working closely with the state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in ensuring that tourism attractions and destinations in the state is well harnessed.
“We have advised the government that it won’t be out of place to have tourism attractions, monument centers in each of the local governments. Because we have gone round the state, and we found out that we have about 105 tourism attractions in Lagos State. Some local government have up to ten, so we are looking at ways to drive this attractions” he said.
One of the experts of tourism at the Summit Ambassador Ikechi Okoh told the government that if they want to make money out of tourism, they need to harness the water tourism.
“Of all the top six tourism destinations in Africa, only one country is landmarked and that is Zimbabwe. All the others are by sea or ocean. The money actually comes from the water. When they tell you Kenya has wildlife, the wildlife doesn’t bring the money but the beaches in Mombasa. And when they tell you Egypt have pyramid, the pyramid doesn’t bring money, the money comes from the red sea resort. So if you need to make money out of Lagos, the money is in water and we have lots of it”.
The event brought together stakeholders in the hospitality business such as the tour operators, hoteliers, boat operators and resorts owners.
Emmanuel Ukoh
