The Directorate of Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), University of Ibadan has commended the Oyo state governor, Engr Seyi Makinde for his ingenuity in using tourism as a tool to create more jobs and improve the internally generated revenue in the State.
The Centre also promised to form a synergy with the state government in ensuring that its vision for the sector comes into reality.
The Director of the Centre, Professor Olanrewaju Olaniyan disclosed this while receiving the Special Adviser to the Governor on Culture and Tourism, Hon Akeem Adeomla Ige in his office on Thursday.
Professor Olaniyan who explained that the Oyo state is endowed with a lot of tourism potentials, however, expressed their displeasure towards the attitude of the past administrations for not paying attention to the development of the sector.
He stressed that now that the government under Engr Seyi Makinde has shown interest in working with the centre, they were ready to give their best in ensuring that the sector enjoys the best it deserves in the overall interest of the State.
Part of where they intend to assist the state government to achieve in the sector, according to Professor Olaniyan, is proper training of tour guards and other stakeholders, documentation and mapping of tourism sites as well as giving necessary advise and assistant on how to develop tourism sites.
Olaniyan harps on the need for government to embark on sensitization and enlightenment of people on what tourism is all about, adding that “people need to have interest and the only way this can be achieved is to arouse their interest and tell them what tourism is all about.”
“Tourism is not about sites alone, its about the stories around it, the stories make the sites so people that would work in the sites must be properly trained, informed and equipped for the tasks”. He submitted.
While introducing the departments at the centre to Hon. Ige, Director of Tourism, Dr Olusegun Opadeji said that the centre trained professionals in tourism sector and most of their graduates are already in the field while some are lecturers in other schools.
He hinted that apart from tourism, government should also be involved in festivals and other cultural and traditional events that would attract tourists to the State, adding that their coming would definitely boost the economy of the State.
In his short remark, Hon. Ademola Ige explained that the visit was to familiarize with the institute with the aim of forming a synergy with them on how to move tourism sector forward in the State in line with the vision of the Oyo State Governor, Engr Seyi Makinde.
According to him, “I have been moving round the sites and I am not impressed with the state of facilities I met on ground. The Governor is not happy too but I belief the way out is to form a synergy with the stakeholders like you in the sectors so that we can jointly take tourism to the next level”.
“Governor Makinde is ready to transform the sector, and that is why we placed an advert in the national newspaper seeking for investors on some of the tourism sites. We want the sites to come alive and be functional again. It is our collective heritage and pride of Oyo State. We must not fold our hands and allow them to be rotten away”, Ige concluded.
