Tourism stakeholders to hold regional conference in Calabar

Tourism stakeholders operating within southern Nigeria will be holding a regional conference on “the use of digital technologies to revamp the tourism and hospital industry amid Covid-19 and security challenges Nigeria.

The Southern Zonal Coordinator of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, Ntiense Olaoye, in a chat with Voice of Nigeria, said that the conference, which is the second of its kind since the beginning of COVID-19 would be open to all stakeholders in the six states.

Olaoye explained that all stakeholders in the tourism sector from Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Rivers and host Cross River States would converge on Thursday August 26^th for the epoch making event.

Tourism assets

She stated that the reason for the conference was to enable stakeholders brainstorm on the way forward in line with the directive of the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to diversify the economy.

“We are trying to diversify the economy just like President Buhari is emphasizing. Nigeria has so many tourism assets that we can tap into and make our economy viable aside oil. So, the President urging the NTDC to partner with the states and discuss ways to tap into these tourism assets

“That is why we are going to hold this stakeholders meeting. This is the second time, the first was in Jos, Plateau State. We are embarking on a geo-political zone stakeholders meeting and it is open to everyone in the tourism sector in the south-south,” Olaoye hinted.

She further explained, “when the COVID-19 pandemic was turbulent, so many businesses in the sector faced challenges. Right now, we are trying to recover what was lost. A lot of operators and investors were discouraged. So now we are trying to see how we can move the industry forward.”

Promoting cuisines

The Zonal Coordinator stated that prior to the stakeholders meeting, the NTDC would be partnering with the Cross River State Tourism Bureau and Ministry of Culture and Tourism to hold a marathon and food fair tagged ‘Nigerian Flavours’ in Calabar.

According to Olaoye, “during the period, there is going to be a 2 kilometre marathon race on August 25 as early as 7 o’clock in the morning starting off from the Millenium Park to the Marina Resort. After that, we have the conference on the 26^th, while another very important event, Nigerian Flavours will hold on Friday 27^th.

“Nigerian Flavours was launched some years ago to promote our cuisines. We have a lot of cuisines in Nigeria that we can promote and that people love, which can be showcased to the world. Our focus in NTDC is promoting domestic tourism.

“Nigerian Flavours is a sub-brand to our Tour Nigeria brand. We are also partnering with Cross River State to develop this event in which 50 food vendors will be participating. There would be dances, music and fashion showcased during the event at the Marina Resort,” the Zonal Coordinator disclosed.

She said that the events were opened to the public as part of efforts to keep the people busy and encourage businesses, adding “the more tourism events we have across the region, the more economically empowered the people would be; and when people are enjoying themselves, the rate of criminality would be reduced.”