The Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, has launched the “Q4-Lagos Initiative” to improve awareness of local tourism potential in the state.
The chief executive officer (CEO) of Q Tourism, Ivor Ekpe, while speaking at the launch, said the initiative would focus on data collation of tourists and events attendance, for information purposes to ensure the economic benefits of the sector for the state.
Ekpe said that the concept would optimise revenue generation opportunities for the state through the Ministry of Tourism and Culture.
He stated that it will help in creating and maintaining an economic eco-system of owners, operators, promoters, marketers, event organisers and planners.
Ekpe said the Q4 initiative would assist in building capacity for the tourism industry, as well as raise and maintain standards, which shall meet the global quality demands through a designed permanent merchandising, marketing and promotional platform.
According to him, “We are moving into the last quarter of the year. There are going to be lots of events in Lagos. People are going to hold shows and events. Hotels are going to have a lot of traffic. We are going to be gathering this information.
“For any sort of planning, you need information, and it has to be gathered. As a private company, we are focused on real data for tourism as a whole so that when we have to support governments or support your private sector, we are offering you information that we have truly gathered and you can work more realistically in making your projections.
“We will build an all-encompassing tourism platform with all the tourism sub-sectors that are required. We are open, not just to this project, but to any other initiative that requires data, including the service providers and visitors. That’s how we’re going to amass the data and be able to make it available for anyone who so requires it.”
The state’s Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs. Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf, added that the fact that tourism boosts the revenue of every economy, creates job opportunities, and develops the infrastructure and creates room for cultural exchange between foreigners and citizens, makes the concept very timely, viable and all-encompassing.
“It is important to also stress that the Q4 concept is not intended for revenue generation. What the ministry is interested in is data collation of tourism activities to assist us in planning purposes and statistics.
“While the ministry will not want to follow the path of enforcement and compliance, we will not hesitate to sanction any operator or stakeholder that refuses to cooperate with the ministry in this data collation efforts,” she stated.
