LAGOS – Mrs. Lola Ade-John and Mr. Festus Keyamo, the Ministers of Tourism and Aviation and Aerospace Development, respectively, are partnering with the aim of fostering travellers and tourism experiences across the nation’s airports.
A statement by Ade-John, said that the two ministers had a mandate from President Bola Tinubu to improve travellers’ experiences in the country.
According to the statement, the two ministers discussed the role of aviation in developing travel and tourism in Nigeria, stressing that globally, tourism flies on the wings of aviation and Nigeria should not be different.
She emphasised that all leading tourism destinations in Africa had developed aviation infrastructure, noting that as Keyamo was revamping the aviation ecosystem, it was expected that tourism would be the major beneficiary of the improvements.
She added that meetings involving stakeholders in aviation and tourism had been planned to interconnect the important pillars of national development.
Stakeholders regretted that tourism in Nigeria had failed to live up to expectations in the past, but they believed that her renewed advocacy would open new vistas for the sector in the country.
Advertisement
Working on the presidential mandate to improve passenger experience, Ade-John acknowledged the role of aviation in achieving this goal.
She said: “We need aviation to achieve our goals. We want domestic airlines to partner with our tour operators to develop affordable packages. We want foreign airlines to play Nigerian destination videos when they are arriving Nigeria.
“We will be happy to see airlines support travel and tourism events in Nigeria. There is a lot of support we will be asking from aviation to lift tourism in Nigeria.”
Recently Ade-John worked with Mr. Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, the Minister of Interior and Mrs. Kemi Nandap, Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), to improve the online visa fees for African travellers leading to more than 50 per cent reduction in visa fees.
This has been hailed as a major milestone for travel to Nigeria.
She also had worked out an arrangement with the Minister of Transport to involve Nigerian tour operators on the utilisation of the rails and road infrastructure for domestic tourism.
