The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dvine Travels and Tours, Mr Olumuyiwa Salami, with a core niche in global edutour and MICE packages, has charged tourism and travel stakeholders in the public and private sector to reactivate purposeful collaboration that will further give accruable meaning to the economic growth of Nigeria.
Salami, who spoke with Travelpulse&MICE from the United Kingdom recently, believed that the appreciable feats Nigeria has reached in international competition like the recent commonwealth games with record-breaking stance, should be a pride to be well celebrated in a way that would create new narratives and campaigns.
“We take things for granted as a nation which in the past hampered and has become an impediment that is causing too many stereotypes here and there. No one can actually blow our trumpet for us, we have to do it ourselves and I think there should be provision for a real time collaboration that will not start and finish as and when the partnership bid is sealed but go beyond that.
“Collaboration is the way to go, that is what all other serious nations are doing and the tourism sector is a good platform to make it happen because of the dynamic nature of the business and human-driven activities that happen daily.
“It is time for government-to-government sector collaboration, where agencies that have one form of tourism allied business(es) will drop their pride and ignorance and come together to champion a national agenda for the progress of the sector.
“Also we need more of the private-to-private sector collaboration as it is the primary form of collaboration that will give the stakeholders one voice to practically build the kind of synergy that will attract government interest to cement the public and private sector participation we all yearn for.
“I think the Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN) is building a bridge to give everyone a sense of belonging and I also believe it is high time we all took the new team of FTAN very seriously to build the kind of industry that will make our businesses flourish.
“One thing we all should know is that tourism flies on its value chain and no one can have all the value chain as a conglomerate, so the tendencies of working with other people is high and if you have to work with other people, whatever affects them, directly or indirectly affects you too. So, for things to be in real time perspective for a business to grow and have a futuristic meaning, we need a purposeful collaboration,” Salami said.
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