As the Imo State Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts mobilizes for the recertification of all tourism facilities and services in the state, the Commissioner, Mazi Uche Ohia, PhD, has led the management of the Ministry on a working visit to the Imo State Tourism Board to appraise its capacity to play a leading role in the recertification exercise.
Speaking at the Orlu Road, Owerri, Secretariat office of the Tourism Board, Mazi Uche Ohia said, “we are looking at your staff strength and the capacity of the existing staff, to know the human and logistics capacity of the Board which will be complemented with manpower from the Ministry and our Parastatals and, if need be, with ad hoc back up”.
He assured the staff that the exercise was duly approved by the State Government and backed by relevant laws. The recertification exercise, he said, was very important as it would enable the state build the baseline data required for effective and sustainable tourism development in the state.
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He said, “it is a very important exercise to the state. We are creating joint teams to undertake the exercise in the entire state and training of the teams will commence very soon. The teams will be monitored closely. The state-wide recertification is geared towards creating a database on tourism facilities and services as well as compliance monitoring. We are looking to build baseline data for every tourism facility and ancillary service in the state”.
According to the Commissioner, the tourism facilities and services which would be recertified include hotels, restaurants, motels, inns, eateries/fast food outlets, travel agencies, hostels, cinemas, nightclubs, event centers, bars, lounges, among others.
Mazi Uche Ohia disclosed that the exercise would provide a cornucopia of information on tourism for a wide range of visitors to the state, event planners, organisations and potential visitors of all sorts. He said, “the exercise will help to build greater visitor confidence, enable the Ministry to properly classify and standardize tourism facilities and assist government to ascertain critical areas of need for tourism operators. The Ministry is already working on a Hotel and Hospitality Directory, a Tourist Guide, a Tourism Calendar which will help boost visitor traffic and hotel occupancy levels. These initiatives and the recertification exercise will promote tourism facilities and services in the state thereby boosting the fortunes of the investors”.
He said for Imo, whose unique selling point is tourism and hospitality, it was not a good commentary that the last Tourist Guide in the state was produced over 15 years ago.
The Commissioner stated that his Ministry would “train all those who will be involved in the recertification exercise to affirm compliance with statutory regulations and to guide tourism operators on how to market the state as well as how to handle situations that may arise”. According to Mazi Ohia, “access to tourism information is critical to boosting visitor traffic. We are setting up a Tourism Information Center where stakeholders can easily access information and for the duration of the recertification exercise, collect the relevant forms for the recertification and for other statutory payments”.
He assured the staff that matters relating to their welfare would be addressed appropriately.
Urging the staff of Imo State Tourism Board to adopt a new attitude to work, the Commissioner emphasized that the recertification exercise was important to government and to tourism investors.
“The tourism industry is in our hands; let us take it to a new level, let us make it work better to the benefit of investors in our state and visitors that patronise the industry. The Governor has placed confidence in us and we have a duty to prove that the confidence reposed in us is not in vain”, he concluded.
In her remarks, the Acting General Manager of Imo State Tourism Board, Mrs Ugochi Amajuoyi, thanked the Commissioner for visiting to interact with the workers and assured that the staff were ready for the recertification exercise.
She appealed to the Commissioner to help address the pressing concerns of the board to ensure greater effectiveness, and also to help persuade the government to consider making the Board a scheduled body for superannuation.
