NAN-ELS-3
Tourism
By Collins Yakubu-Hammer
Abuja, Jan. 19, 2018 (NAN) Ms Abigail Olagbaye, the Chief Executive Officer, Desigo Tourism Development and Facility Management Company, has urged the Presidential Council on Tourism (PCT) to take pragmatic action to move the sector forward.
Olagbaye, who won the Miss Tourism 2005 trophy, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
She said that after the National Tourism Summit in 2016, which facilitated the subsequent resuscitation and inauguration of the PCT, nothing had been heard.
“Let us stop treating tourism with kid gloves because other countries are recording progress in tourism and time waits for nobody.
“ Every minute and second, we do not take decision on things we lay out to do on tourism; we are losing money and time.
“ I urge the government and stakeholders in the tourism industry to reconvene and re-examine the objectives of the PCT and ensure that it is driven with utmost passion and seriousness.
“This is because every time we are not taking action on tourism development in the country, we are losing money and time.’’
On enhancing public-private partnership (PPP) in tourism, the organiser of the annual Youth Tourism Connect Essay Writing Competition urged the government to capitalise on PPP to make tourism infrastructure work.
According to her, the development of the tourism industry through PPP is a good idea and urged the government to make the offerings and incentives more attractive.
“For instance, if a financial institution, private enterprise and government are partnering in tourism development, the government should ensure that all interests are catered for adequately.
“Government and other parties should fulfil part of their agreements because sometimes, when partners don’t fulfil their part, it can be de-motivating and discourage the projects from seeing the light of the day.
“This is because when there is no commitment, other partners will not be encouraged. Financial institutions sponsoring the project will like to look at past records of the government and partners.
“Thus, partners in PPP, especially government, should ensure that they fulfil their part of the agreement, and also make sure that other party’s interests are protected,’’ Olagbaye said. (NAN)
CMY/FLP/NKO
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Edited by Folorunso Poroye/NKechi Okoronkwo