Mrs Alexander-Oziegbe, the Deputy General Secretary of the Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP), was one of the panelists at the 8th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Kwara State.
This was her first visit to the State, and she shared her positive impression and insights on the progress of the tourism sector in Nigeria.
According to her “This is my first time in Kwara State, and I’m having a great time. I’m feeling the harmony, and I said it’s a huge difference from Lagos, because Lagos is fast-paced,” she began.
Talking about Tourism as a Catalyst for Progress; Joy, with 18 years of experience in the tourism industry, emphasized the potential and untapped nature of the Nigerian tourism sector. “I’ve been in the industry for 18 years now, and my core is business tourism, whether inbound or outbound. I believe our tourism sector is highly untapped because there is so much money made by other countries from Tourism. A lot of us go to the UAE and several other countries where we visit tour sites but we have such beautiful tour sites here in Nigeria. I believe we need to work together, the government need to work together with tour operators to bring more people into Nigeria, and those of us already here, to boost our local tourism.”
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She highlighted the importance of promoting local tourism as a means of economic growth and national pride. “You know, talking about progress, every nation is talking about how they can boost their economy, how they can make more money. And the more we do our local tourism, the more we showcase what we have, the more people outside know that this country has so much to offer. It’s not about we demarketing ourselves, we are always talking about security issues, always saying, government is bad, things are not working. It is not true. Look at all of us here beautifully dressed. From Lagos, we have about 70 registered tour operators that travelled to Kwara State not to talk of the others from other states in this hall. You know, it is beautiful. We left our families, we left our businesses, because we want to explore Ilorin. We want to see what they have here.”
Mrs Alexander-Oziegbe recounted her experience visiting the Sugar Factory Filmstudios with some AGM planning committee members, expressing her amazement at the development of the studio. “As the MD spoke to us, I was amazed. Talking about the studio, Kwara State has developed over the years, it’s one of its kind in Nigeria and in Africa. And I said, ‘my God, I never knew something like this existed in Nigeria’.
The MD, the veteran actor Mr Gbenga Titiloye talked about how he covered the Durbar festival, and I was like, so many people do not know this. Imagine taking this out, he said something that caught my attention, and when we get back to Lagos we will act on it. We were discussing imagine bringing people to come and watch the Durbar festival, we tour operators can curate a tour package around it, bring people in, let them come and see what we have here. You can imagine the number of hotels that we will use, the amount of food that will be prepared and consumed all this will be generating income for the nation and its progress for us.”
In a call to action, Joy encouraged her fellow tour operators and Nigerians to change the narrative about the country. “I want to encourage every one of us here, let’s put hands together to change the narrative about our country, let us speak and post good things about Nigeria. My friends will ask me how do you live in Nigeria and I will be like you need to see Nigeria. Chimamanda Adichie said something years ago, ‘only Africans can tell the true story about Africa’. Let us stop allowing people give their own narrative of us, it is time for Nigerians to tell the world and change the narrative about Nigeria, it’s time we tell them what we have to offer. Nigerians are one of the most intelligent people in the world, we are not monkeys sitting on trees, we are educated, we are beautiful our culture and heritage is beautiful. Nobody will do it better than you and I. Ask yourself, you as a tour operator, what is your contribution towards the progress of this nation? Are you not tired of complaining? The next time we will be coming to Kwara, we are coming with a bang” she said.
The 8th AGM of the Nigeria Association of Tour Operators in Kwara State provided a platform for industry leaders like Joy Alexander-Oziegbe to share their vision and strategies for advancing Nigeria’s tourism sector.
