World Tourism Day: Stakeholders demand better policies

As the world commemorates world tourism day, stakeholders have called for improved engagement and better policies to drive the sector.

Director, Media and Communications, African Tourism Board, Kazeem Balogun, while appealing to the government to do more, noted that tourism has increasingly proven to be a good business investment contributing greatly to the world economy.

He said that with an enabling environment for tourism to thrive, the country would benefit in various ways from the sector.

This was at the press presentation and Saching ceremony of the 2024 delegates of the Miss and Mr Tourism Africa pageant in Lagos.

President, Miss and Mr. Tourism Africa, Santiago Robert, emphasised that the responsibility of promoting the culture and tourism of a country cannot be done by an individual alone but a collaboration between government and private organisations.

“We hope that government will wake up to the call of prioritising tourism, working hand in hand with private stakeholders to promote the nation’s tourism and market it to the international scene,” he said.

Robert, speaking on the upcoming tourism pageantry, which would be held on October 1 in Lagos, said that this year, is the debut of the Mr. Tourism Africa pageant.

“This year, we are hosting the first ever continental male and female pageant on one stage and we have also increased our price pack courtsey of our sponsors to make sure that the event gets better in terms of price compensation for the winners.

“The event would also be held in an African centered designation and we are also curating original sounds for the production,” he said.
The delegates were from African countries such as Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Mauritius, Liberia and others.

Robert noted that the Miss Tourism winners would be given $2000, an all-expenses-paid trip to the Maldives, and would feature at the Milan Fashion Week 2025 in Paris. For the male winner, while talks are still ongoing to increase his prize, he would be going home with $1000 from the event host. The runners up will get prizes from sponsors.