(Posted 19th September 2024)
Recently the Minister of Tourism Mrs. Lola Ade-John has been engaging in a massive advocacy to grow tourism in Nigeria. She met with the Minister of Transport, Alhaji Said Alkali to work on modalities to improve domestic tourism in Nigeria using the rails and road infrastructure. The Tourism Minister met with her Transportation counterpart to share ideas on the available transport infrastructure in Nigeria and how Nigerian Tour Operators can tap into the existing infrastructure to grow their business.
It was agreed that a Joint Committee be set up involving the Nigerian Tour Operators to evolve a workable framework to implement an effective domestic tourism project in the country. Just last week the Honorable Minister had engaged her counterpart in the Interior Ministry on easing visa access for African travellers coming to Nigeria.
She had reached out to the Minister and Comptroller General of Nigerian Immigration Service to resolve issues associated with visa on arrival. The cost of visa has been an obstacle to improved visit for tourists. Her advocacy has been praised by event organizers. Her emerging advocacy is the next phase of engagement with the industry. She spent the first part attending tourism events all over the country to know the stakeholders and listen to them. Lola Ade-John has attended more tourism events in one year than most tourism ministers did in 4 years. She has promised to engage other interdependent ministries and department to ease the challenges the stakeholders face as part of their business.
