Cross River State - Tourism, Pivot of State Economy - Hos

[CrossRiverState]

The Department of Tourism Development has been described as the pivot of the State Government economy in the absence of oil wells.

The Head of Service, Ntunkae (Mrs.) Mary-Theresa Ikwen, mni stated this while holding an interactive session with the Management and staff of the Department in its office located at the Hens building in Calabar.

She said that the erstwhile administration of the State in its wisdom initiated the tourism development programme which today has been effectively packaged for the overall interest of the State economy, its people as well as tourists within and outside the country.

Ntunkae (Mrs.) Ikwen maintained that the rich tourism potentials of the State which she noted is an endowment from God, is further strengthened by the peaceful and healthy environment cum the aesthetic and face-lift of the State which has encouraged tourists to the State.

She admonished the management and staff of the Tourism Development to redouble effort at harnessing the vast tourism potentials of the State for the realization of the aims and objectives of establishing the Department as she noted there are high expectations of the Department from the public.

The Head of Service who stressed the importance of tourism as a source of revenue generation, urged the Department to carryout massive sensitization of the public on possible areas they could participate in the tourism initiative of Government to enable them earn a living.

She cited some of these possible areas to include, craft making as well as establishing craft shops where such finished crafts could be displayed for purchase by tourists as well as members of the public.

Ntunkae (Mrs.) Ikwen who described the State as a safe haven in terms of forest preservation, expressed delight that the State is among the twenty five (25) bio-diversity hot spots in the world which has helped greatly in the preservation of the forest reserve which protects the environment from the effect of global warming thereby providing the needed shelter against bad weather to thousands of people from all over the world.

She called for a strong synergy between the Local Government Chieftains and the Department of Tourism to enhance the discovery of new tourism sites as well as preserve the existing ones for the interest of the people and the State economy.

While re-stating the functions of the Office of the Head of Service which include overseeing the activities of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) the No. 1 Civil Servant, called for regular up-date of Department's nominal roll which she emphasized should always tally with the pay roll as well as the schedule of duties for effective use of the workforce.

She advised the Department to always submit monthly performance of their staff to the Office of the Head of Service using the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) template for evaluation provided by the Department of Public Service Monitoring and Evaluation (PSME).

The Head of Service also harped on the need for capacity building especially in a specialized area such as tourism development and called on the leadership to submit their training inputs to her Office for consideration.

Reacting to the Head of Service presentation, the Special Adviser to the Governor on tourism,, Barr. Wilfred Usani described the interactive session as commendable as it had broaden the scope of service knowledge by staff of the department.

Barr. Usani enumerated the tourism Department's mandate to include, formulating policies and designing strategies for the development of tourism in the State, direct co-ordination and supervision of tourism development in the State.

Other areas of the mandate of the department according to the Special Adviser, are to facilitate the provision of infrastructure in the State's tour sites as part of tourism development and to ensure the expansion of the State tourism content to enhance product variety.

Being a newly established department, the Special Adviser said that the Department is grabbling with what is expected of it adding that the department is currently carrying out the supervision of all MDAs which have related functions to the tourism activities among others.

He said that the structure of tourism in the State, is in line with the Kenya model and remark that the Department's activities is in line with international standard.

Barr. Usani disclosed that tour site development has commenced in the State as well as strategy for destination management which involves working with private partnership is to implement the newly approved licensing body.

He said that though the Department is faced with the challenge of meeting its revenue target, efforts are on to meet the revenue target set for the department by Government.

In his vote of thanks, the Director of Administration in the Tourism Department, Mr. Eniang Etim Offiong described the visit as commendable as it has enabled the staff to benefit from the session.

He commended the Head of Service for her contributions towards the growth of the Service and urged her to keep that spirit on as the department is solidly behind her.