NTDC Boss Folly Coker Talks Best Ways To Reap From Tourism Assets

Folorunsho Folarin Coker the Director-General of the Nigerian Development Tourism Corporation (NTDC) better known as Folly Coker has revealed the best ways to reap from “Tourism Assets”.

The nation’s number one tourism boss re-appointed on Friday, April 30, 2021, based on the achievements recorded in his first term in office made the identifications for government and privately-owned tourism assets.

The tourism expert who is on the last step of putting in place a hugely needed legal framework for a better operation insists, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is needed to activate a buoyant tourism industry in Nigeria.

“The era of government funding of project 100 percent is probably gone, this is the era of PPP for domestic tourism, to create a conducive environment for the creative industry” Coker asserted in a recent interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The legal framework Coker is passionately pushing will enable a more accommodating tourism law and open up endless opportunities in the ways of running hospitality and tourist places in Nigeria.

The legal framework will also make the Public-Private Partnership he is advocating easier to achieve.

“Our creativity needs a home like the London theater…..Government and the private sector need to build a home and release it to the creative industry to fly. We need to give our creativity infrastructure to grow,” Coker shed better light in his chat with NAN.

The holder of bachelor’s degree in combined studies, economics, and geography from Manchester University unrelenting continues his advocate for use of technology in the business of tourism.

“During COVID-19, everybody had moved to digital transactions. It has now become important to advertise on social media platforms where people see what you offer. It is cheap and has greater penetration and greater reach than traditional means of advertising. Use of technology is very important in advertising goods and services,” the NTDC who also possesses a post-graduate degree in diplomacy, international trade, and finance from the University of Westminster where he finished with distinctions explained.

And the Baba-Eto of Yorubaland designate highlighted the importance and added gains of using technology to reap gains from tourism assets with the revelation that “We tell owners of tourism assets that training is imperative to deliver tourism requirements, we made trainers realize that six months vocational training is enough for people to deliver required tourism services,”