…Plans big for French President, Macron’s visit to Nigeria
By Olasunkanmi Akoni
lagos—THE Lagos State Government yesterday said it had received $400,000 out of the $600,000 grant donated by the Ford Foundation for the proposed Lagos Museum project to be sited at the New Eko Court, Marina.
Akinwunmi Ambode
Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mr. Steve Ayorinde disclosed this, while addressing journalists at the annual Ministerial press briefing to mark the third year anniversary of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration, held in Alausa, Ikeja.
The commissioner, who also unveiled that the state’s Tourism Master Plan, said it had adequately captured the potentials of spiritual or religious tourism, noting that the primary concern of government was to ensure that the infrastructure and enabling environment to drive tourism development was fully in place.
He said the Master Plan, which would be ready by the end of May 2018, was geared toward showcasing the state as major tourism destination across the world.
Responding to a question on if the Master Plan took cognisance of the multi billion naira generated by tourists visiting the State for spiritual purposes on a yearly basis, the Commissioner said that though not explicitly mentioned in the plan, said that every area of tourism had been adequately provided for in the document.
“If you look at the six sectors in broad terms, you will see that they have captured every area of tourism as far as business development and promotion are concerned and the interest of government is to develop the ecosystem of tourism, the practitioners, the tour operators everybody who has been involved over the years, will basically drive their businesses.
“But what government is interested in is to say that in the first two years after we have released the tourism master plan, what are the things that we need get done, what sort of policies should guise us, do we require any tweaking in the existing policies and programmes, who do we speak to, where do we seek money and who should we identify and those six pillars that our consultants have identified, frankly speaking has captured everywhere.”


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