'PCT Has Created Tourism Awareness'
Stories by Justina Okpanku
The Presidential Council on Tourism (PCT) says the beleaguered tourism industry in the country is definitely being revived even though the speed is slow.
The third edition of the group's meeting which was hosted by Nasarawa State government in the culture active state capital, Lafia last week Thursday was a clear evidence that tourism is picking up and more people are embracing the sector known globally as a major revenue earner.
There were two sessions for the day: the reception and the plenary session, a closed door affair, which lasted for hours. Men and women of timbre and caliber from the states of the Federation, policy makers, including President Olusegun Obasanjo who is the Chairman of PCT; Ministry of Works, Chief Ogulewe, Secretary to the Federal government, Obong Ekaette, Economic Adviser to the President government, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ambassador Franklin Ogbuewu and his colleagues gave the tourism industry a sense of direction.
The tourism quest also attracted regular faces such as Cross River State Governor Donald Duke, Lagos State Governor represented by his deputy Femi Pedro; Ogun State represented by a woman in charge of tourism.
In the same way, the private sector was well represented. Captains of industry from across the sectors graced the occasion.
One of the new features was the interest shown by Nasarawa people especially their traditional rulers to see to the transformation of the tourism industry to the good of the country.
In fact, the reception was like a carnival where over seven cultural troupes performed to the satisfaction of all.
The Chairman of the apex body of private sector tourism in the country, FTAN, Mr. Goodie Ibru was visibly excited about it.
He said:" We would like to express our joy, we (FTAN) are delighted that PCT meetings have created awareness in the scheme of things. We are confident in the near future the results will manifest itself.
After the closed door meeting, Ambassador Ogbuewu briefed the press, that the deliberation was fruitful though the communiqu� will not come immediately.
He listed the achievement of PCT which was set up by the Obasanjo administration in Jos last year to advance the tourism industry in the country.
He said:" Tourism is now becoming a household name. I was glad in a church recently when the Reverend Father was making a comment on government efforts to improve the tourism industry."
The minister said that delegates to the PCT meeting including Obasanjo, some ministers and tourism active state governors present agreed that they have made progress so far. They regretted that the results are not manifesting immediately as expected because the projects assigned to PCT member states were very big and substantial projects like access roads and social and logistics facilities which could not be quickly completed.
Kebbi State Governor has signified interest to host the PCT meeting billed for first quarter of 2005.
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