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Nigeria: Govt Woos NEPAD on Tourism
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This Day (Lagos)
14 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Lagos
Lagos State government has called on the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), to help boost tourism in Africa by facilitating the Twining of Sister Cities' relationships amongst different African Cities.
This call was made by Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism and Inter-governmental Relations, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, while making a presentation on investment opportunities in the Lagos tourism sector, at the First NEPAD Tourism Initiative held on Monday in Durban, South Africa. Afikuyomi, who described Lagos as perhaps the safest mega city in the world, called on African countries to be ready to shake off all negative prejudices and stereotypes pre-determined from outside the continent, saying, "it is unacceptable to begin to compare the security status quo of any city with less than 10 million people to that of another city like Lagos with over 16 million people.
"We must compare apples with apples and not oranges. With mega city status, comes mega security challenges. We must reflect the population factor truthfully in assessing security situations of a destination for tourism. Never must we allow external forces to typify our cities as unsafe through questionable travel warnings, when the same countries issuing such warnings cover up the gory violence on the streets of their own cities day by day." He, therefore, called on NEPAD to facilitate twining of sister cities' relationships as the one being proposed between Lagos and Durban, for other African cities to provide a common platform for destination marketing and exchange of ideas for promotion of tourism between different NEPAD cities. In his presentation titled, "Brand and Destination Marketing: Durban's New Strategic Approach," Project Executive for Durban Tourism, Peter Bendheim, commended plans of the new administration in Lagos State to create new corridors of excellence, in reference to the propposed Lagos Energy City and the Eko Atlantic City, saying, "it is difficult to upgrade a whole city at once.
"Before you can begin to market your city as a destination for business and leisure, you must embark upon what is called Tired Areas Audit, to identify areas that once attracted visitors to your city and refurbish your existing tourism products while developing new ones."
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The session held by NEPAD as part of this year's Tourism Indaba, Africa's largest travel and tourism exhibition, was declared open by NEPAD Cities Convener and Mayor of Ethekwini, Cllr Obed Mlaba.
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