Stakeholders in the tourism and culture sectors have expressed divergent opinions over the merger of the tourism ministry with the arts, culture and creative economy ministry.

The stakeholders bared their minds in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.

NAN reports that President Bola Tinubu, on Oct. 23, announced minor cabinet reshuffle during which he merged the tourism ministry with arts, culture and creative economy ministry

The cabinet reshuffle, however, led to the sack of Mrs Lola Ade-John as the Minister of Tourism.

Mr Israel Eboh, President, National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), told NAN that the decision was right as tourism cannot be separated from arts and culture.

Eboh said as a matter of fact, arts and culture provide the needed content for tourism to thrive and as such should be under a single ministry.

?We recall when the two ministries were announced earlier in the year, we raised concerns because we felt the two ministries ought to be one, looking at the inter-relation of culture and tourism industries.

?Arts and culture provide the materials that boost tourism. Our festivals, crafts, performances and all are products of our culture that can boost tourism activities. This should be well understood.

?We are not surprised this is happening and it is a beautiful development for us because obviously the tourism industry has been in comatose in the last two years.

?We await visible results from now because we believe the current Minister of Artts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy should be able to channel those lofty programmes toward promoting inbound tourism,? he said.

Also, Bolaji Amusan, National President, Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN), commended President Tinubu for merging the two ministries.

According to him, this will help in cutting cost of governance.

Amusan said: ?Tourism, arts, culture and entertainment are interwoven, so, it makes no sense for any of those sectors to be separate.

?As actors, we make use of hotel facilities across the country as well as tourism sites, we still operate within the tourism space, so, the decision is the right one.?

Amusan also commended President Tinubu for converting the Ministry of Nigeria Delta Development to the Ministry of Regional Development to oversee the activities of all the Regional Development Commissions.

He said more of such decision was needed to reduce the cost of governance in the near future.

For Olugbenga Adebayo, Chief Executive Officer, Gadeshire Travel Company, the decision was improper as he envisaged that the tourism industry might not attract the needed attention.

Adebayo said over the years, the arts, culture and entertainment sectors had been given priority attention over tourism.

According to him, the same scenario may be repeated again.

?I believe tourism sector over the years has been abandoned and as one of the stakeholders, I was really elated when we received the news on stand-alone ministry for the sector, in fact, I was happy when the Ministry of Tourism was created.

?It was an opportunity for us as a sector to get more attention from the current administration in terms of working policy development and implementation.

?I believe, merging tourism ministry with other ministry, though with related ministry and integrated activities, is still a setback for tourism because the sector may not be able to receive proper and required attention.

?In the last administration, tourism sector suffered a lot of setback due to the fact that it wasn?t operating as a stand-alone ministry,? he said.

Chief Tony Okoroji, Chairman, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), said regardless of the recent cabinet reshuffle and the various merger, the association was more concerned with having fully functional systems.

Okoroji said the association was interested in having leaders who would be capable of harnessing the enormous tourism and cultural potential the nation is endowed with, to produce meaningful results. (NAN)

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