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Ministers pledge to use tourism against poverty
(Vanguard) |
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By Jimoh Babatunde & Victoria Ojeme
Commonwealth Tourism Ministers have pledged to work together to use tourism for sustainable development and the reduction of poverty for attaining the millennium development goals.
This formed parts of the communique issued in Abuja last week at the end of the 2nd Commonwealth Tourism Ministers Meeting hosted by Nigeria.
The meeting chaired by Ambassador Frank Ogbuewu, Nigeria’s Minister of Culture & Tourism agreed to place tourism on national and international agenda as a catalyst for poverty reduction, particularly at the community level.
Other pledges made by the ministers include the followings to ensure that tourism development is appropriately sensitive to the needs of women and other vulnerable groups in society; to support the creation of a Commonwealth Tourism Centre in Malaysia that will boost information flows, build capacity and enhance promotion initiatives just as they expressed their gratitude to the Malaysian Government for its generous offer to host the Centre and to finance it for a period of three years in the first instance.
They also planned to ensure that security upgrades for tourism are accompanied by parallel action in travel facilitation, including improved passenger handling at all entry points; to intensify their initiatives for fair travel advisories which ensure that information is accurate, geographically focused and frequently reviewed by governments at both ends of the markets; to place capacity building at the top of their priorities for development funding with a strong focus on triple bottom line sustainability, performance and quality service; to support investment activities commencing with a seminar in London, in November 2005, at the time of the World Travel Mart and to strengthen relationships with the UN World Tourism Organization and other tourism related bodies, linking and partnering projects where feasible.
Part of the communique reads, "Commonwealth Tourism Ministers met in Abuja, Nigeria on 28-29 April 2005. The Ministerial Meeting was opened by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who underscored the importance of strong action to boost tourism in the world’s poorest countries. He said that there was an emerging international understanding of the importance of this sector as a means to reduce poverty through rural tourism and ecotourism. He also said that Africa has a unique tourism product and this is fully recognised in the work programmes of the African Union and New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) as well as in the recently published report of the Commission for Africa chaired by the UK Prime Minister. He also sought support from the Commonwealth to promote tourism in Africa, in both member and non-member states."
Nigeria's tourism: More campaign, no development, says Ajayi
The Chief executive Hydra Entertainment and the promoter of "Team Tourism Nigeria", Mr. Akin Ajayi has said that the tourism campaign in the country is growing, but without development as some notable attractions that were household names in recent past have all lost their beauties and their facilities run down
Speaking with journalists on the company’s pet project "Team Tourism Nigeria" a project for Nigerians between the ages of 17 - 30 of which about 21 of them will tour all major tourism attractions across the country for sixty days, Mr. Ajayi disclosed that the vision behind this project is to showcase Nigeria to the outside world positively through tourism, painting genuinely the viability of the tourism industry in Nigeria.
"Hydra Intention, I must say here is that the programme will not only be shown live in Nigeria alone but to Africans in diaspora and other parts of the world to see that not only footage of bad news that makes the headlines abroad but some good news too.
"This is to let them see our tourism potentials and their investment potentiality as well. To show the world that Nigerians are good and hospitable people and there are lots of money to be made by investing in the nascent industry in Nigeria. That is the message we are cooking and we are prepared to serve it to everyone and anybody that cares to listen and watch "Team Tourism Nigeria".
Mr. Ajayi disclosed that realizing the effort of the Federal Government and some states at promoting tourism, they at Hydra Entertainment as a relatively young organization sat down and decided that "we would do something different from the usual soap, movies and fiction cooked in the studio, but a programme in the likes of reality show or TV. programmes that are very popular abroad that would be more beneficial to Nigerians."
The management team, he added, then took a tour of the major tourist attractions in the country for a first hand information on what will be presented to the world.
On the most impressive attractions during the tour, he has this to say: "Honestly speaking, you will not appreciate the serenity, peaceful environment and the unquantifiable hospitality nature of Nigerians until you moved around. To be frank with you, places such as Idanre Hill in Ondo State, Erin Ijesha Water Falls in Osun State are some of the most wonderful attractions in the South Western part of the country.
On how they intend selecting the young Nigerians that will be involved in the tour of the country , Mr. Ajayi explained that they are putting in place a system that the public will be directly involved in selecting the eventual winner of the adventure exercise. "The public will follow the daily live coverage of the activities from one attraction site to another. At the end, Nigerians will be able to select a lucky winner through SMS."
Mr. Ajayi disclosed that twenty one people will be selected from the thirty six states of the country with three coming from each of the six geo-political zones, "three young dynamic participants would emerged from each zone, and must actually be proven and convince our selection team that they reside in the state or geopolitical zones they represent, so as to eradicate or arrest a situation where all the participants emerge from one part of the country." |
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