By SIMON NDIVE KALLA
Despite Cameroon’s enormous rich cultural heritage and tourism potentials, the tourism sector in the country is yet to get some level of international recognition.
It is for this reason that Flora Travel and Team in collaboration with the ministry of tourism and the Limbe City Council organised a one-day tourism fair on Friday, February 21, 2020 at the Limbe City Council Hall Down Beach tagged “Cameroon tourism, a move towards stakeholders leadership”.
The programme had as objective to promote tourism in Cameroon, create networking and partnership platforms to facilitate face to face interaction among tourism stakeholders etc.
During the event, the representative of the Minister of State, Minister of Tourism and Leisure, the Regional Delegate of Tourism and Leisure, Agnes Efite Monono said they always talk about tourism in relation to sustainable development because the population has to feel the impact of tourism.
She stressed that with the launching and planned organisation come November 2020, they are hoping that many things will come to the region; businessmen, stakeholders, partners, airlines etc will come up with strategies to see how they can boost the tourism potential of the region.
Welcoming participants earlier, the representative of the government delegate to the Limbe City Council, Chief of Cabinet, Mbua Samuel, appreciated the organisers of the tourism fair for choosing Limbe to host the event.
Mbua stressed on the importance of tourism in the economy of the country but decried the Anglophone crisis which is hammering the sector. He also used the opportunity to announce the 7th edition of Limbe FESTAC billed for Saturday March 28 to Saturday April 4, 2020.
On her part, the Chief Executive Officer of Flora Travel and Tourism, Agatha Iyok said with the slogan “WEJELI WE BWAMU”, the Cameroon government has the potential to create jobs and boost the local economy of the nation, councils and communities. According to Agatha, this will go a long way to create wealth and jobs and ensure environmental sustainability which can only be achieved if stakeholders understand their role and have a mastery of the various laws and tools to implement sustainable tourism.
Quizzed on some challenges faced by the tourism sector, Agatha decried the effect of climate change in many parts of the country, the terrorists’ attacks in the Northern parts of the country as well as the crisis in the North West and South West Regions.
It should be noted that activities that characterised the day were panel discussions, poetry, entertainment, exhibitions and tombola among others.