The last two weeks have been very busy for the team and me as we prepared for the International Tourism Summit Oyo State (#ITSOyoState2024). This landmark event was held on Wednesday, 17 April, and Thursday, 18 April, 2024.
I was happy to meet individually with about 15 local and international investors who expressed interest in investing in our dear State. As I stated at the event, I have approved the upgrade of Agodi Gardens into an international-standard botanical garden, and we will sign an MOU with the investors in the coming weeks so that work can start there.
At the dinner, we awarded ten individuals who contributed to the growth of tourism in Oyo State last year. I say congratulations to them and wish them more wins in future.
Let me again thank everyone who made this event a huge success. I thank the Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John for putting aside party politics to attend this event. I thank my brother, His Excellency Donald Duke, former Governor of Cross River State and Mr Tourism himself for gracing this occasion. I also thank Chief Dr Mrs Onikepo Akande for chairing the summit.
The Organising Committee made up of Dr Wasiu Olatubosun (Commissioner for Culture and Tourism); Akinola Ojo (Commissioner for Finance); Dr Debo Akande (Director General OYSADA and Executive Adviser on Agribusiness, International Development and Cooperation); Tilewa Folami (Director General OYSIPA); Sulaimon Olanrewaju (Chief Press Secretary and Special Adviser on Media); Dr Morohunkola Thomas (Special Adviser on Socio-Economic Development); and Abigail Anaba (Head of Content Marketing Slvr Wlf Digitale Ltd) did a great job with this event.
As we look forward to a compilation of the learnings from the educative sessions, we will be using these submissions as a basis for policy on tourism in the coming months. I can promise you that we will be implementing some of the suggestions that were made as we position tourism as a key driver of sustainable development in Oyo State.
If you attended the summit, we would like to hear back from you. The team has put together a short survey for you. Also, here are some pictures that capture key moments of #ITSOyoState2024.
