CNI, An NGO, Trains 25 Epe Indigenes On Tourism And Tour Guide Services

The World Tourism Organization “WTO” defines tourism as the activities of a person or group of people traveling to places outside their normal environment for a specific period of time whose main purpose of traveling is other than the excise of the activity enumerated from within the state visited.

From a historical perspective, tourism could be said to be an offshoot of the idea of leisure which started in Great Britain in the 18th century. After the industrial revolution which took place in Britain, the economic structures of the UK changed.

This was when the elites have the opportunity to travel, chiefly for education and official reasons.

Other travels were undertaken by business merchants who travel for business reasons.
Man and his environment have been provided with natural endowments in immeasurable quantities which include springs, waterfalls, oceans, deserts, oasis, islands, hills, rocks, mountains, valleys, lakes, confluence zones, tributaries and a host of others.

In the same vein, antiques, artifacts, airports, seaports, historical attractions, slave ports, zoological gardens, botanical gardens, game reserves, museums, great wall or city walls, etc have been put in place by man through his vast creativity and innovation.

All the aforementioned serves as a tourist attraction to people of diverse cultures to explore.

There is no doubt about the fact that societies that house these tourist attractions will immensely benefit economically. Some of the major beneficiaries include hoteliers, travel agents, transport operators, the government, the zoo, the museum, bank and bureau de change, traders of tourist products, and other stakeholders.

In a bid to unlocking and exploring the tourism potentials of Epe town and its suburbs, CNI, a community development based NGO, organized a training for tourism enthusiasts in Epe on Tour Guiding.

The 3-days program, which started on June 5th and ended on June 7th, was held at Late Chief Tele-Olukoya Hall, Ibonwo-Epe.

The training was in conjunction with the West African Tour Guide Association, Nigeria (WATGA), and National Guild of Nigerian Tour Guides.

The training was anchored by a seasoned and well-respected Facilitator, Mr. Anago James Akeem Osho, President, West African Tour Guide Association, Nigeria chapter.

He is also the Founder and M.D of Anago Osho Adventures.

The facilitator took participants through various concepts on Tourism and Tour Guiding, the prospects, and future projection for the Epe community.

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In an interview with Eko Hot Blog Correspondent, he said that,
“Everyone benefits from tourism directly or indirectly.

Tourism is a sector that cuts across the societal leaders to the most minute person in the community.

Tourism is a form of business whereby one aspect of tourism will affect everything in a particular community.

“If you have a hotel, you’ll employ a cook, room service. In the same hotel, visitors come and you don’t know who the visitors are. They might fall in love with your community at the end of the day and invest there.

Tourism helps us to preserve our heritage. When people come to visit an attraction site of any kind, money made is kept for preservation”.

“I have done trainings all over Africa, you see, when we talk about Lagos, we have wonderful towns, villages. Epe is one of the most important places in Lagos.

“Tourism is big in Badagry. Epe also has the potentials.

“So coming to Epe is with the intention to open eyes of young and elderly people who have an interest in tourism because you must protect, preserve and conserve heritage that we have here and promote it because it will create jobs especially for the youths”, he said.

H, therefore,e admonished investors to invest in Epe with the assurance that they can’t lose.

He noted the enormity of tourist attractions are such that would earn investors huge profit when properly promoted and marketed.

He however stated that the tourism boom in Epe is largely dependent on the promotion by its people before government intervention and support.

Participants from far and near who took part in the training expressed satisfaction and excitement at learning about what tourism and tour guiding entails.

One of the participants, Abass Damilare, he said, “It’s been exciting, fun and educative.

“My plan is for all of us here to come together, at least for a start, just to make sure we identify and promote our monuments in Epe.

“I will like to say a big thank you to the organizers, CNI and the Chief Host, Mr. Idris Tele-Olukoya, I hope more of this comes up for the younger generations, ” he said.

Another participant, Miss Adebowale Zainab was full of appreciation for the opportunity to learn.

“I feel great and excited. The experience in the last three days has been eye-opening. I had a lot of experience because I have not seen my home town this way, I have not seen some things in a long time, especially the history of my home town.

“It has been a new dimension and I want to thank the organizers for the privilege”, she said.

Also, Mr. Amos Olufunmilayo Babatunde, In his view, the training was interesting, ebearing, and that he had acquired more knowledge.

He also stated that he got value for his money, despite that knowledge can not be bought.

“These tourist attractions are mere things we see around us every day but we do not see any significance. I am now enlightened to the ancient everyday antique around has value to the community.

After this program, I plan to venture into the world of tourism”, he said.

Eko Hot Blog reports that the 3 days long training rounded up with field trips to various historic tourist attractions centre, some of which include; Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Okemagba Central Mosque, Ogegbo Palace all in ancient Ibonwon town. Alara’s palace and Popo Oba square were also visited.

By Idris Tele-Olukoya and Kaka Babatunde

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