The African Travel Commission (ATC) has lamented that seven years after the Lagos State Tourism Promotion Agency Law was passed and signed into law by the state government, it has yet to be fully implemented.

Executive Director of ATC, Dr Lucky George, in an interview with The Guardian yesterday, said that the continued delay by the state government to operationalise the law had weakened efforts to establish a professional and independent institution capable of driving tourism policy, destination management, investment coordination and long-term sector planning in Nigeria’s commercial capital.

It would be recalled that the tourism promotion agency law was passed by the Lagos State House of Assembly and signed into law during the administration of former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in 2019.

The law was intended to create a structured institutional framework for tourism development in Lagos State, which is regarded as Nigeria’s entertainment and commercial hub.

George regretted that seven years after the passage and assent, the agency had yet to emerge as a fully independent and functional institution.

He queried the government’s political commitment towards implementing tourism reforms and sustaining long-term institutional planning within the sector.

He posited that the establishment of the Lagos State Tourism Promotion Agency was expected to serve as a major vehicle for implementing that vision.

George, however, said that the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had continued to support entertainment, cultural festivals, nightlife development, transportation infrastructure and event-driven activities across the state, but insisted tourism growth required more than yearly events and publicity campaigns.

He said that sustainable tourism development depends largely on strong institutions, reliable data systems, coordinated destination management, environmental planning, investment regulation and policy continuity, adding that without functional institutional structures, tourism risks becoming seasonal entertainment, rather than a sustainable economic sector.

George, however, expressed that institutional resistance within the ministry might have slowed the agency’s full emergence as an independent body as required by the law.

According to him, successive administrations in the state had continued to rely heavily on ministry-driven tourism programmes while institutional reforms remained largely unimplemented.

He also expressed concerns over persistent structural challenges within the tourism sector, including weak tourism statistics, fragmented attraction management, poor coordination, inconsistent implementation and limited long-term planning.

He, therefore, challenged the Assembly to strengthen oversight on the implementation of the law, noting that legislative responsibility did not end with the passage of a bill but extends to ensuring that institutions created by law are properly implemented and operational.