The Minister of Culture, Tourism & Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, was in Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort , recently where the ministry entered into partnership with Ekiti State government on what it tagged; Renewed Hope Cultural, Creative and Tourism Project.

During the visit, the minister also unveiled a far-reaching cultural diplomacy and tourism rebranding campaign ‘ Destination 2030’ aimed at positioning Nigeria as a global destination as well as inaugurate the new Presidential Villa at the resort.
She took out time to have a chat with travel journalists to share her experience at the Ikogosi resort, tourism marking in the country and the Destination 2030 project among other issues. Here is an excerpt as presented by JIMOH BABATUNDE

On her impression of the Ikogosi Warm resort

My mind was completely blown away. I have heard the magical, mythical sort of feelings and experiences that you have in Ikogosi. But I think as much as anyone tries to tell you, you don’t really have that full experience of what it is here in Ikogosi till you come.

You know, I didn’t believe that there was anywhere in Nigeria that had this kind of magic. This space is absolutely magic.

The new presidential villa that we’ve just commissioned, I mean, anywhere you go in the world, this is what you are going to find. What I have to say is, what I noticed all the way around is the attention to details that Cavista Holdings and all the people here have played to ensure that they have delivered something that is completely a global standard.

This is really the place when you talk about tourism assets in Nigeria, we all know that Nigeria has so many beautiful tourism assets. But I think what they have done here in Ikogosi is that they have completely raised the bar in terms of what Nigeria has to offer.

And we really have to key in to ensure that Ikogosi is not only maintained, but it’s also upscaled and is sustained for the benefits of the whole not only of Ekiti State, not only of the tourism industry, but Nigeria as a whole.

On what the ministry is doing to promote domestic tourism

I think the best way to really add onto the template of tourism and to promote tourism for me is to focus on domestic tourism.

There are so many Nigerians that really want to experience Nigeria from North, South, East and West. Everywhere you go in Nigeria is something different.

One of the initiatives that my ministry has come up with is the Renewed Hope, Cultural, Creative and Tourism programme that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked us to put in every State.

He wants every State to tell the story of their unique peculiarity through the eyes of culture, through the eyes of tourism and through the eyes of creativity.

So, what we have done as a federal government is try to reach out and do a handshake with every State. So every State will tell us what they want us to collaborate on that will build on that tourism asset. And my hope is that we will now use that as a template to ensure that there is domestic tourism so every state will have something to build on.

Like I said, going back to the first question that I answered, I think what they have done here in Ikogosi is really a template that can be used all over the country.

What has been done here is something that can be done anywhere in the developed world. So if we can look at this template and look at the attention that they’ve done, and I must say one of the great things that I’ve seen that they have done in terms of job creation is to engage the local community.

And you know that is very empowering because when you engage a local community, you give them a sense of ownership as to that edifice that you have.

In terms of a sense of ownership, they will also want to protect it. The issues of insecurity, you’re able to sort of mitigate that in one way or another.

But our ministry, again, is very intentional in working with the private sector. This is the intention of Mr. President because he wants everything to be sustainable long term. He has asked every one of us to work with the private sector to ensure that we put up all the right infrastructure.

What we are going to do here in Ikogosi is to continue working with Cavista Holdings to see how we can really bring traffic into Ikogosi so that we can not only maintain it and sustain it, but we can continue to upscale it.

On what the government can do to ensure that the road to the Resort is good to drive traffic

We came in through Akure, but I must tell you, I enjoyed the drive because I had the experience of watching the locality and the different communities. So, I personally love that I have to drive a long way to get here.

But in order for us to be able to deliver places, destinations such as Ikogosi as a holistic tourist destination, not only for domestic tourism, but what I hope will be for global tourism as well, is to ensure that we put up that infrastructure.

Now, when you talk about infrastructure, access has got to be one of the main discussions. I have already started discussions with the state government and, of course, other MDAs, inter-ministerial collaborations, so that we ensure that access to Ikogosi is a lot easier.

So when you’re coming in from Lagos, you’re able to fly directly into Ado Ekiti and then you’re able to drive shorter and more seamlessly. Again, it’s really about partnership and collaboration and conversations with other MDAs to ensure that everybody pulls his weight to deliver that destination. This is what I plan to intentionally do with Ikogosi.

Nobody has to go out of Nigeria. If you want to go for a retreat, if you want to experience the beauty of nature, I think that is what is the magic about Ikogosi. That attention to detail that we have seen has met a sort of rallying point with nature.

This beauty that you see here, is something that we really want to deliver for domestic tourism, for international tourism.

For example, when you’re going to Cancun, you’re not necessarily going to Mexico. So before we sell Nigeria as a tourist destination, but you’re able to sell Ikogosi as a destination in itself, you find that traffic will come into Ikogosi. And as a result of that, we’re able to boost the traffic. I want to thank Mr. President because of his prompting and the mandate that he gave me to ensure that we deliver these tourist destinations.

And Ikogosi is really at the top of my intention in terms of delivering one of those first tourist destinations to the global community.

On the projection of the ministry in contributing to revenue generation in the country

The generation, I feel, is going to be quite a lot because one of the things that Mr. President wants us to do is to use the ministry to generate revenue and add to the economic growth of the nation.

With a huge potential in the tourism, creative and cultural sectors, we feel that we can do that. He’s also looking to see that we can add job creation to it. We are working together with Big Win to do a complete deep dive and a proper sort of academic research as to what we really believe the tourism sector can really contribute to the nation by 2030.

From the creative economy side, we feel that we can at least contribute a hundred billion dollars if all the modalities are put in place and every single sector is able to pull its weight in terms of putting the right framework in place.

I think by 2027, at least with Ikogosi, you’re going to see an upscale because of the partnership that we’re having together with Cavista Holdings and with the state government and with this Renewed Hope cultural, Creative and Tourism project that Mr. President has mandated to ensure that we are able to contribute to the growth of the economy through the tourism sector.

We’re going to have the National Tourism Summit, possibly to be hosted here with the NESG. Our plan is to encourage every single government body to hold their retreats here. I think we’re going to, as a ministry, be very dogged and intentional in ensuring that we continue to encourage not only the private sector, but different sectors in Nigeria and the governments to patronise and to ensure that they also experience the beautiful, warm and cold springs and the magic of Ikogosi.

On Destination 2030 project

I’m glad that you spoke about Destination 2030 because when I was up at the balcony at the Presidential Lodge here, I actually thought about Destination 2030 because if you step onto the balcony and you just look onto the right side, you’re going to find an avalanche of beauty, of nature. I mean, it’s absolutely breathtaking.

And one of the things that I was saying to my team is the hope of taking images such as what we have seen in Ikogosi and making postcards of it, trying to make merchandise of it.

Destination 2030 is one of the core eight initiatives that we have in the Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, where we want to reposition Nigeria in the eyes of the world.

We want to use our cultural, creative, and tourism assets because that’s really where the interest is in Nigeria, (its content).

And when you talk about that content, our beautiful landscapes, the beaches, some of the beauty of nature in Nigeria adds to that content that you speak of Nigeria.

We want to use that to change the mindset of people, because that is where our power lies. We want to use that to change the mindset of the global community as to what Nigeria is. You know, part of that story and part of that journey is to use a destination such as lkogosi as a rallying point to bring people into Nigeria so that they can experience and change their mindset as to who we are as a people.