Tourism Boss Unveils Food Court to Drive Tour Nigeria Brand  

The Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Mr. Folorunsho Coker has unveiled a Food Court in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, south-south Nigeria.

The ‘Food Court’, which is designed to promote Nigerian Flavours, an offering ingrained in the Tour Nigeria programme, was established in collaboration with the Cross River State Tourism Bureau and located within the Marina Resort in Calabar.

Mr. Coker, who also formerly hosted the ‘Tour Nigeria’ flag at the resort, said that Calabar as a home of good food, happy people and hospitality had experienced a slow turn, which left without proper direction, would hinder the tourism growth.

Awakening the spirit

He noted that cities like Dubai, which attracts millions of Nigerians and people all over the world, was driven to the top of the tourism chart by the contributions of individual small businesses rather than the government.

According to him, “Calabar was known as the home of good food, happy people and its hospitality, which is second to none in Nigeria. But, in recent times has experienced a slow turn that some people would want to blame on the economy or ENDSARS protest.

“However, the spirit of the people remains and we are determined to wake up that spirit by bringing Tour Nigeria and Nigerian Flavours here. I like Cross River State and I like the people of this State especially the inhabitants of the marina.

“I commit to ensuring that every year we will continue to introduce lofty programmes specifically designed to expand the tourism offerings in Cross River and Nigeria. There are funding available to individual stakeholders in this sector and I encourage those with very good plans to take advantage of the opportunities in the sector,” he pledged.

Funding Tourism SMEs

Speaking on the availability of funds for Small and Medium Scale Businesses, SMEs, in the tourism sector, the Managing Director of the Cross River State Tourism Bureau, Mr. Utsu John Atsu said that funding was available in the state’s owned microfinance bank.

Atsu said, “one of the ideas behind the establishment of the microfinance bank is making funding available to all small businesses not restricted to agriculture, but cuts across all sectors.

“What we need to do in the tourism space to access the fund is to prepare ourselves; not take things for granted by not preparing a good business proposal. I will urge those in the sub-sector to conduct a good feasibility study and develop a proper business proposal to approach the bank. 

“The bank is there to help each and every one of us; to make this possible those of us in the tourism space must present strong business cases to enable us draw down on those funds,” he said.

Improving asserts

The Managing Director further described the launching of the Food Court as a milestone in the Cross River tourism sub-sector, saying “this is an improvement to our tourism assert. What we have been trying to do in the past year is diversify our tourism offering and focus on Ecotourism.

“What the NTDC has done here today has helped our tourism space; it has also improved the standard and efficiency of local businessmen and entrepreneurs at the Marina Resort.

“This will drive disposable income, allow the people to earn more and take care of their families. It makes our community better and if we can replicate this across the state at different levels, we would be doing quite a lot,” said Atsu.

The highlight of the ceremony was the tour of exhibition stalls, display of cultural dances and musical performances by various local artists.

Confidence Okwuchi