Register Your Hotels Or Face Sanctions, LASG Tells Operators

The Lagos State Government has advised operators of hotels, hospitality centres and other recreational facilities to register them or face sanction.

The state Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, which gave the advice, said the registration would afford the state government to monitor activities at such places.

The ministry’s spokesman, Mr. Ganiyu Lawal, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that hotels and facilities centres must comply before the end of the year or face sanctions.

He said the registration was part of the ministry’s efforts to upgrade the present standards of hotels and hospitality groups in the state to an internationally acceptable standard.

He said the exercise would also serve as security-assurance for tourists and users that might want to lodge in them.

The spokesman said the ministry would invoke the Hotel Licencing Law of the state to ensure that all hotel operators and hospitality groups complied.

“A number of hotels and hospitality groups had refused to comply with the directive before now.

“Sequel to that, the Commissioner, Mr. Folorunso Folarin-Coker, had directed that defaulters be fished out,” he said.

The spokesman said that there had been an increase in the number of registered hotels and hospitality groups from the 450 recorded in May.

Nevertheless, the unregistered ones were more than those registered, he said.

“We still have some miles to cover with the current number of unregistered hotels; but we shall continue to appeal to them to comply before the year runs out,” he said.