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Akinbile -Yusuf : Tell the world Lagos is ready for tourism

For the Lagos State Commissioner of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs. Uzamat Akinblie- Yusuf, the purpose of the three days tour was to expose the tour operators and other stakeholders to the different assets of the state with a view to enabling them market them. She didn’t mince word about this, as she at every stop during the tour emphasised on this point. Making it quite clear that the government is committed to creating jobs and wealth for the people through its huge investment in providing the enabling environment for tourism to thrive.

Therefore, she expects the tour operators to take advantage of this and the different opportunities that the tour present, as she said that: ‘‘We need to do much more in marketing our products, we have invested hugely in it but what we are getting back is not what we expect. ‘‘We want to encourage you all to package tours to our different sites as this can create jobs and wealth for our people. We are concerned about creating wealth for our people.’’ She also points attention to the need for facilities’ owners to invest in souvenirs and other items that tourists visiting their sites can buy as that is one of the ways of making money from tourists, saying that: ‘‘We should create products and souvenirs in our sites for our tourists to buy.’’ Speaking further on the three days tour, she said: ‘‘I want to appreciate everyone that has been with us on this our tour. The mainreason why we embarked on this journey is for us to be able to market Lagos as a destination for tourism both locally and internationally. ‘‘So for the youths here there are a lot of potentials and opportunities that abound in the tourism sector.

I want you to come on board and join this beautiful dream that is coming to reality. The state tourism master plan has been presented, the community based tourism is ongoing and now we are getting a lot of products that we are going to be marketing. ‘‘Now you see all the assets that the government has provided for us to market. When you have your visitors, your tourists you now know the lovely places that you can take them to. In the past you may not have known but now with this tour you are aware of a lot of the facilities that Lagos state government has put in place for you to market. ‘‘We have been to Badagary, we have see the slave market and museum that have just been completed and the Lagos Theatre. We were at Freedom Park and we have seen the importance of transportation to tourism because we were on water and we were on road. ‘‘All these are what you can put together and start to market and promote. I believe that in another two years we would have many more people taking this as a means of livelihood and creating more jobs and wealth for the state and its people. So we have many products and we must be ready to develop them, we must be ready to market them and tell the world that Lagos State government is ready for tourism.

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