The Lagos State Government on Thursday revealed plans to partner the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to create a welcome desk at the Lagos airports to ensure seamless operations for tourists.

The state’s Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Toke Benson-Awoyinka, said the initiative was to reduce the cumbersome process tourists experience on arrival to the state in their quest to settle down.

Mrs Benson-Awoyinka said that the welcome desk would cater for every traveller’s need to promptly make bookings for hotel and taxi among others.

According to her, this is one of the efforts the ministry is putting in place to encourage tourists’ inflow into the state.

She said, “We are going to create an atmosphere of welcome at every entry point into Lagos at the airport. We will work with FAAN to create a space to help tourists and travellers generally gain access to easy hotel and taxi bookings as well as need to gain access to the service of professional tour guides, tour operators and travel agents.

“We want to showcase Lagos as a choice tourism destination to the world. We will also be partnering with bookings.com for seamless hotel reservations. We want to upgrade our system to say destination Lagos has arrived.’’

Speaking on plans to further preserve Lagos history and communicate the same to tourists, Mrs Benson-Awoyinka said, “We are also thinking of plaguing the heritage sites within Lagos to relay historical facts about each of the sites.

“Also, there would be a barcode at each of the sites which could be scanned on tourists’ mobile gadgets and they gain access to more knowledge on the sites because plaques cannot convey all the history.

“We will take deliberate steps to ensure Lagos residents know Lagos more and the history of the state.”

The commissioner advised Nigerians to look inwards and take deliberate steps to visit tourism sites within Lagos.

“Lagos has the best and longest coastline in Africa and there is no difference between beaches in Maldives and Seychelles compared to what is obtainable in Ibeshe and Ilashe,” she said.

She pledged to ensure that the state provides an enabling environment and ecosystem around tourism.

She stated that plans were also underway to introduce ‘LAGRIDE’ as an official tourism ride for Lagos.

“So, when visitors land at the airport, they can book their ride and the taxi will be waiting to take tourists to their destinations. We want Nigerians to see Lagos as global tourism destinations. Our waterway is beautiful, there is absolutely no difference between beaches in Maldives and the ones we have in Ilashe and Ibeshe. We should all work toward boosting our economy by visiting our tourism destinations and reducing visits to international ones,” she said.

(NAN)