Alaafin partners NANTA on international marketing of Sango, Oranyan festivals

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi has saddled the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA) with the responsibility of promoting and marketing of Songo and Oranyan festivals internationally.

The Alaafin disclosed in Oyo recently while receiving a delegate from the South-West Zone of NANTA led by the Vice President Western Zone, Dagunduro Olatokunbo and a member of the Board of Trustees,  Prince Jide Sarayi.

According to Oba Adeyemi, “Your visit was timely and a sign of better things to come for the tourism industry and I will implore you not to marry culture with tourism when doing your marketing and promotion of Nigeria tourism content domestically and internationally.

He commended the leadership of the Western zone of NANTA for taking the bull by the horn to give domestic tourism a practical approach at a time the country is battling with recession, thereby promised to give his full support to the association.

He further recalled that Nigerian Airways used to be the pride of Nigeria in the airspace globally, but so sad that today the nation has no national carrier.

Since crude oil is exhaustible and tourism is sustainable, then the government should take tourism seriously and this can be done by the government engaging stakeholders like NANTA to move the industry forward,” he said

Speaking earlier, the Vice President Western Zone of NANTA, Dagunduro Olatokunbo, said the visit was long overdue to the the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Adeyemi, adding that the association is the downstream sector of the aviation sector and likewise remains the largest employer of labour in the Aviation and Tourism industry in Nigeria.

He said that the body believes it’s high time it synergised with traditional rulers to ensure that cultural tourism content of Nigeria is practically packaged, promoted and marketed to niche market within and outside Nigeria since the association has a wide range of membership network cut across different continent of the world.

We are taking a bold step to see that we do not only package our products but also tell our stories professionally and originally to millions of tourists, trade buyers and sellers outside Nigeria.