The Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Steve Ayorinde, has pledged the commitment of the ministry in partnering with journalists and writers of tourism in the pursuit of the development and promotion of tourism in the state.
The commissioner disclosed this during a meeting in his Alausa office between his management team and representatives of the tourism writers who were in his office to congratulate him, the Permanent Secretary, Fola Adeyemi and the Special Adviser to the governor on Arts and Culture, Aramide Giwanson, on their recent appointment and declare support for the new team.
Ayorinde commended the body for their initiative and disclosed the readiness of the ministry in working with them as one of the strategic partners of the ministry in the realization of its mandate. According to him, ‘‘the ministry is going to associate with your team closely and collaborate with you because you are one of the strategic partners that we will be relating with.’’
While revealing that the ministry recognizes the challenge before it, he, however, pledged that the team is working assiduously towards attaining its mandate and that they would see a different ministry and tourism industry, disclosing that the work of the ministry is based on a tripod.
The first leg of the tripod, according to him is policy, programme and infrastructure development, which in the last two years the state government has pursued relentlessly across the various sections of the state, all in a bid to create an enabling environment for tourism and businesses to thrive.
The second angle, according to him, is engagement with stakeholders, as he said that the ministry is poised at identifying and capturing all the relevant stakeholders and operators in the sector with the aim of having periodic engagement with them while the third leg is that of strategic communication, visibility and branding.
According to him, a blue print for this is already in place as the ministry will soon communicate the essence of the state and its brand to the people through various communication and marketing channels. He also spoke on some of the plans and programmes of the ministry, which include the ongoing work on the state tourism master plan and a public forum where the inputs of the stakeholders and operators to the master plan would be sought.
Also, is the issue of a tourism calendar for the state, which he said is at its final stage and once concluded would be made public.
Earlier, the tourism writers team charged the commissioner and his management team on paying close attention to areas of policy formulation, engagement with the private sector, product development and communication and marketing.
The commissioner thanked the team for their presentation and promised that the document would be studied with a view to implementing aspects that are germane to its mandate.
