Our Reporter
Director General National Council for Arts and Culture ( NCAC), Otunba Segun Runsewe has called for deep measures of support for the tourism sector in 2021, through faster covid testing and certification process.
He said in a statement that the pandemic, with its attendant stringent measures for inbound travels and the partial lockdown of door recreation, have added more burden to industry players.
Runsewe stated that there’s a need to create a deliberate climate of assurance and faith for the cultural tourism economy to avoid depression and continued loss of jobs.
” We certainly welcome the news of vaccination to help curb the spread of the pandemic but we must give the Nigerian tourism and Culture sector some form of protection and confidence to get hold of a strategic survival plan through faster covid testing response and certification. The industry must breathe in 2021 and show grit,” he said.
Considering the worrisome situation of the industry, Runsewe believes that the enthronement of effective monitoring and compliance with COVID 19 protocols, supported faster covid testing ecosystem and certification will boost the confidence in the troubled tourism economy as well as strengthen capacity for service providers, create more tourism jobs. This, he said, would have a positive impact on the sector as against predicted losses inspired by COVID-19.
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“The fear of another strain of the pandemic is very alarming but we must respond with a chain of confidence-building processes, carefully driven through one to one engagement with cultural tourism practitioners and geared towards creating additional domestic travels, empowering the hospitality and creative sector to sustain jobs, provide services compliant with covid protocols with a decentralized faster covid testing and certification process that can generate double digits growth for the industry in 2021,” he added.
Runsewe noted that NCAC took to strategic engagement with relevant and critical stakeholders during the year to frustrate the fear and anxiety of the covid-19 pandemic, praising the efforts of NCDC and presidential Taskforce on covid 19 for creating the enabling environment for the Cultural tourism sector to thrive, adding that Nigerians should discourage the stigmatization of covid 19 victims and also remember that NCDC and the PTF consciously and deliberately took to the awareness campaign on covid 19 to reduce community spread.
” We should not fear 2021 but must carefully navigate all the challenges likely to face us through a dedicated bank of faster covid testing response mechanism, decentralized and promoted with industry leaders in order to power the sector to growth instead of doom in 2021,” Runsewe added.
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