Lagos to host hybrid World Tourism Day event
The Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has said that the celebration of this year’s World Tourism Day would be in conformity with Covid-19 safety protocols as plans have been concluded to restrict physical participation by its stakeholders during the celebration.
Uzamat Akinbile-yussuf, commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Lagos State, disclosed the information at a Technical Meeting held in preparation for the event billed for Sunday, September, 27, 2020.
At the meeting, it was agreed that tourism stakeholders participating in the event would join the celebration through Zoom platform, Facebook Livestream on Lagos State Government and from four divisions of the state, while a smaller number would join some high profile guests at the physical event taking place in Ikeja. The commissioner, who emphasized the importance of social distancing and adherence to Covid-19 safety protocols during the meeting, agreed that the numbers of participants for the physical event should be reduced to meet the maximum numbers of persons allowed for physical gathering for now while others can join via Zoom.
She added that the celebration would give room for various stakeholders in the tourism industry to discuss and explore the United Nations’ World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) theme for this year’s World Tourism Day, which is ‘Global Community United to Celebrate ‘Tourism and Rural Development’. The discussion, according to her, would be led by a panel of discussants, who are expected to come up with strategies to revive tourism in Lagos after the Covid-19 experience as a way of bringing about rapid recovery for the Industry.
The panel of discussants, Akinbile-yussuf revealed, would include some of the past permanent secretaries and commissioners of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, just as she added that Oba Gbolahan Lawal, Oniru of Iruland, would deliver goodwill message during the event. She emphasised the need to target grassroots participation during the celebration, assuring that tourism stakeholders would also be carried along in the planned activities for the event.
Babatunde Olaide-mesewaku, permanent secretary of the Ministry, told the technical team that just as events all over the world are going virtual, it was expedient for Lagos State, being the model city state, to tap into available technologies and make the event an example for event planners in the state. He promised that with the partnership with a competent private sector event organiser, Lagos would deliver a world-class World Tourism Day event.
It would be recalled that the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture had earlier announced that Lagos State Government would be joining tourism stakeholders across the globe to celebrate this year’s edition of World Tourism Day on September 27th when the Ministry hosted the Ambassador Ikechi Uko-led team from Akwaaba African Travel Market and Atqnews in Alausa, Ikeja.