FCT Minister wants improved service delivery to boost tourism
NAN-H-105
Tourism
By Kabir Muhammad
Abuja, May 25, 2017 (NAN) The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, has stressed the need to improve service delivery, if the country were to boost its tourism sector and earn more revenue.
Bello expressed this views when a delegation from the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), paid him a courtesy visit on Thursday in Abuja.
According to him, the complaint generally by most people that visit the country is that the quality of service being provided is not good enough when compared to what is obtainable in other climes.
“A lot of people get put off by the way we receive them at the airports, the way we treat them in the buses and the way we provide them service generally.
“I think if as Nigerians we are able to really improve on that aspect, it’s going to be a huge catalyst in trying to revamp and get the full potential of the tourism sector,” he stressed.
Bello said operators in the sector must change their attitude towards service delivery by ensuring that the environment is clean and available facilities work to optimum standards.
“We have to work on service delivery. It’s not really the quality or sophistication of what we provide.
“Some of those places you go, you find that really, the furniture is simple, locally made, the buildings are locally made. But the facilities work. The cleanliness is emphasised,” he added.
He reiterated the willingness of the FCT Administration to partner with the stakeholders in the tourism sector by providing accurate data of all tourist destinations in the FCT.
“There is also the need for the training and retraining of manpower in the sector.
“The social secretariat will provide you with all we have in terms of tourist sites, facilities that could serve as meeting points, facilities that have some resemblance of accommodation to house trainees for a week or two.
“So, any requirement that will involve partnering with you and the other agencies, we will do it.
“In the FCT within our agencies, we have units and departments specifically meant to cater for this and in the past, we’ve had a lot of interventions,” the minister said.
Bello while calling for synergy among the major players in the industry, said that the FCT Administration shares the vision of achieving a massive turnaround in the tourism sector.
Earlier, the Director-General, NIHOTOUR, Mrs Chika Balogun, said there is need to reposition the FCT to become a major destination that will attract conferences.
“Not only within Nigeria but from the West African sub-region as well as the rest of the world.
“We have to be a conference destination that is actually dedicated to going to solicit for those things and doing all the needful for us to begin to attract conferences to Nigeria.
“We will like to partner with you in terms of training and retraining of the manpower within the FCT,” she said.(NAN)
KM/AFA
Edited by Felix Ajide