The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the private sector have mapped out strategies to strengthen tourism in West Africa with critical instruments to make it more competitive.
This move was to harmonize two instruments that are critical to the development of the sector which are the Regional tourism Policy (ECOUTOUR-19-29) and the Regulation about Classification of Hotels and Accommodation within the member states of the region.
This was the focus of the meeting of experts and stakeholders of the private tourism industry on the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms of the instruments, which aimed to gain more from $9 trillion said to be the global worth of the industry.
A communiqué issued at the end the 3-day high-level strategic dialogue between ECOWAS, West African private sector tourism stakeholders and experts, which ended in in Abuja on Thursday, recommended that the private sector should formulate a request for funding for the activities of ECOTOUR 19-29 Country Operational Units to the ECOWAS Commission.
It also recommended that the private tourism sector should generate funds from Technical and Financial Partners (TFPs) with a view to implementing a robust and sustainable regional tourism for economic growth.
According to the communiqué the private tourism sector is to identify and seek the support of TFPs to support the private tourism sector. It also recommended that the private tourism sector should initiate and sign a partnership agreement between it and the ECOWAS Commission.
Also contained in the document is that ECOWAS Member States should provide national classification commissions and structures in charge of resource regulation and to organize awareness-raising sessions for industry stakeholders on the new regulations.
The communiqué also recommended that the ECOWAS Commission should organize capacity-building sessions for national classification commissions and regulatory structures.
It also recommended that Member States should establish harmonized tourism satellite accounts, as well as transmit and make available the new regulations for their individual countries, stressing that ECOWAS Commission should conduct a mid-term evaluation of ECOTOUR 19-29.
The communiqué was signed by Mrs Ruth Ndam, Director, Hospitality and Travel Trade, Nigerian Tourism Development Authority.
Others are Mr Boka Georges, President, Hotel Ranking Commission of Côte d’Ivoire, and Mr Massa Cande, Director General of Tourism of Guinea Bissau.