Tourism professionals laud Sirika, to hold tourism, transportation expo Nov 8

The National Tourism Transportation Summit Stakeholders have lauded the giant strides of Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika in repositioning the aviation industry in the area of infrastructure and the procedures leading to the re-opening of the country’s airspace to international operations.

Last week Saturday, the first international flights touched down at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos after over five months hiatus owing to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic which led to the closing of Nigeria’s airspace, precisely on March 23, 2020.

First to land was Middle East Airline (MEA) from Beirut, Lebanon followed by British Airways in what signified the re-opening of airspace to international flights.

Lead Organiser,​ Tourism and Transportation Summit Stakeholders, Chief Abiodun Odusanwo in a congratulatory and good will message to Sirika said, “We are aware of the high level national and international dialogue, diplomacy and interventions that culminated to the achievement of returning international flights to our skies once more.”

Odusanwo, who is also the National President of  The Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria (ITPN) stated,   “As tourism and transportation professionals, this single achievement means a lot to us and our stakeholders because this is the time we can say the lock-down has been eased down for us”.

The group equally saluted Sirika for the commissioning of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu runway last month, saying they look forward to his strict supervision in the completion of the terminal building and other ancillary and complementary facilities in the airport in a short time.

The Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria is a cardinal stakeholder of the National Council on Transportation (NCT) which is the highest transportation advisory body in the country.

In the 15th Edition of the National Council on Transportation that held in Sokoto in 2017, the ITPN advocated for a tourism and transportation sector to close their ranks in a bid to diversify the economy which the current administration is pushing as one of its programmes.

He disclosed that memorandum was adopted by the NCT and subsequently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

That, he said, gave birth to “the Tourism Transportation Summit and Expo”. The ministries and agencies of both sectors have successfully hosted two editions of the summit in 2018 and 2109.

This year’s summit is tentatively scheduled for November 8 and 9th, 2020 at the Abuja International Conference Centre with theme: “Repositioning Tourism and Transportation Connectivity and Mobility to Revitalise the Economy.”

Wole Shadare