Otunba Wanle Akinboboye one of the tourism sector’s biggest players has unveiled what he called 52 new products in the industry.
The tourism sector icon had during the recent celebration of the of World Tourism Day and Nigeria’s Independence Day, announced his readiness to drop on the laps of the tourism industry, 52 new products on the basis of one product a week for the next 52 weeks!
The information jolted the tourism industry, which had just recently found a full voice with the recent creation of a tourism ministry and the appointment of a tTourism Minister by President Bola Tinubu.
Reacting to the news of the introduction of the new products, the President of Youth Tourism Club in Lagos, Taoreed Fatuyi said, “Of course, that’s very innovative on his part. The question, however, to be asked is, do we have up to 52 tourism products out there for him to announce or showcase?”
Also, Okorie Uguru, a tourism writer cum journalist, said “It is a welcome development. Otunba Wanle Akinboboye has always been creative. And that is why he has excelled in the tourism industry in the last 40 years. It is my hope that our local tourism buys into this idea, we all await the release of these new products.”
To fulfill his promise Otunba Akinboboye has released the ‘Diaspora Nigeria Economic Recovery Programme (DNERP) as the first tourism product, out of the 52 promised. He said the DNERP is a tourism product initiative designed to revive the ailing Nigerian economy.
According to him, “This is because we believe the much-neglected tourism sector is the lowest hanging fruit, that should be plucked to quickly reverse the prevailing economic downturn of the nation’s economy, as revenue from tourism goes directly to the people, the taxi drivers, tour guards, souvenirs traders, hotels and so on, whose impact of tourism can be felt directly and almost immediately. DNERP offers Nigerians, lovers of Nigeria in the Diaspora and their friends a template to contribute their own quota to resuscitating the economy by holidaying and investing in Nigeria, thus DNERP is in two distinct categories or packages, that is, Leisure and Business.”
Mofoluwa Abiodun, a travel agent, has lauded the initiative as the country awaits more of the products in the weeks ahead. However, a team member from the tourism icon’s office who spoke on the initiative said, “As you are quite aware, Otunba Akinboboye cannot go back on his words. As at this moment, we are working on the release of the whole 52 new products already lined up in the first series. We are aware that, tourism students, tourism teachers, lecturers, tourism industry top shots are already on the lookout.”
