By Olawale Gabriel

Lagos State government has re-iterated its policy of using tourism, hospitality, entertainment and sports as a tool of stimulating the economy of the state.

Speaking weekend at the commissioning of the redeveloped Apapa Amusement Park, the Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Folorunsho Folarin-Coker, said the state government is ready for ideas and plans by investors for the replication of leisure facilities in all parts of the state.

While re-iterating the government’s promise of creating an enabling environment for partnership with interested private sector organisations, Folarin said the intervention will affect all facets of tourism, entertainment, hospitality and generate multiplier value for the state economy.

Folarin-Coker said the Apapa Amusement park offers Lagosians an opportunity for the regeneration of family values and bonding, “provision of a leisure spot with facilities as contained here goes a long way in stimulating the mind through recreation and entertainment.”

He called on Lagosians to visits the park, Folarin-Coker said it will help in conserving foreign exchange that would have been spent visiting such facilities elsewhere in the world as well as create jobs for people in the area.

“If this place generates one million tourists in a year and they spend at least N5000 that is about a billion Naira. You see that the volume is what we need to keep this place going.”

He explained that the tripartite project of the government in resuscitating the park will provide a benefit for return on investment as well as attainment of the government’s long term vision to make the state the destination of choice for tourists.