The Permanent Secretary Lagos State Ministry of Tourism Art and Culture, Mrs Bopo Oyekan- Ismaila has lauded the leadership of the Nigerian Association of Tour Operators, NATOP, led by Hajia Bolaji Mustapha on the unveiling of their state of the art secretariat in Opebi Lagos.
Speaking during the unveling, Mrs Oyekan – Ismaila stated that the role the leadership of NATOP is playing will further strengthen and enhance what the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu is doing in the area of tourism growth and promotion in the state.
Commenting on the issue of mutiple taxation in the state , the Permanent Secretary stated that taxes have now been harmonized in Lagos in line with that of the federal government.
She maintained that the issue of multiple taxation is something that happened in the past which doesn’t happen again.
According to her: “Taxes have been harmonized now. So the issue of multiple taxation is something that happened in the past. It doesn’t happen again.
And when such happens, our office is always available and ready to take this up. But I can tell you for the fact that there’s no multiple taxation in Lagos State. The problem is that a lot of people don’t want to pay tax at all.
They don’t want to pay anything. But once you pay, and you can show that you are paid, I’m sure they can’t tax you for the same thing twice”.
She noted that Governor Sanwo-Olu believes in local tourism that will eventually lead to limitless opportunities internationally.
Mrs Ismaila while also commending the leadership of NATOP, maintained that it takes a lot of guts, a lot of cooperation, a lot of hard work for NATOP to open their new office in Lagos.
According to her, “this place now provides an avenue for practitioners and non-practitioners to come, do their businesses, promote tourism in Lagos State and in Nigeria. It’s open to everybody. There’s the massage area. There’s the culinary session. There’s the just relax session.
There’s the broadcast session. There’s the promote Lagos session, promote Nigeria and anywhere else you want to go. So there are different things that are here”.
Ismaila said her ministry is collaborating with the tour operators in Lagos state to promote the state tourism potential.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of NATOP Board of Trustees, BOT Chairman, Mr. Nkereuwem Onung while lauding the leadership of NATOP for the unveiling of its first secretariat noted that the opening signifies stability, for tourism in Nigeria.
Onung stated that its AGM are always rotated across states in the country to promote the its untapped tourism potential.
He commended Lagos State Government for its huge investment in tourism infrastructure to promote growth in the sector and state.
In her opening remarks, Hajia Bolaji Mustapha, the President of NATOP
stated that this is the first time in history that the tour operators is having a secretariat.
Hajia Mustapha explained that the essence of the secretariat is for the body to be visible so that clients and other will know where to locate them.
She said: “We need a location and I pray that by the grace of God we have our own permanent site where we’ll be located but this is the beginning.
That’s why we have a workstation for members to come in and do their work while they’re being asked for any requests. We have a workstation, we have a small lounge that you can have a private meeting with your clients or anything, we have a conference room so you can rent a space for hours, for the whole day and you pay us, so it’s just a place for us to promote tourism in Nigeria and alongside Grand Express Tour Centre (GET Experience Center) which is another private business to enhance the secretariat so that’s the whole essence. So customers visibility is the sweetness of business”.
She said the opening of the secretariate will help in addressing some issues of quackery in the tourism sector, adding that when NATOP is visible other quacks will no longer have any option than to fall in line do their business professionally as
NATOP is Nigerian Association of Tour Operators strictly for professionals.
Mustapha said NATOP will also partner Embassies for them to know who and who are actually the tour operators so that they know who they’re dealing with.
Speaking also, Joy Alexander Oziegbe, a member of the National Executive and Chairman of the 10th AGM planning committe noted that the opening of the secretariat is a landmark event in the tourism industry because it’s their first in the sector.
Oziegbe explained that having the secretariat which is a world class will position NATOP rightly in the tourism space, both locally and internationally because they now have
a physical venue where they can be reached from any part of the world.
Commenting on the AGM, Oziegbe stated that NATOP is expecting a lot of conversations concerning local and inbound tourism.
In her words: “Because the idea is to focus on Destination Nigeria. We are going to be discussing tourism potential.
We will have the government represented. We have our stakeholders represented. We are going to be discussing how to unlock our potential more.
How to promote Destination Nigeria more.
We have the CEO of Air Peace, Dr. Allen Onyema coming. We have the DG of NIHOTOUR, DG NTDA among others.
We are going to have a high powered panel where we will discuss several ways of promoting tourism, both inbound and local”.
