The Ogun State government has disclosed that the ravaging COVID-19 has opened the possibility of using online marketing to promote adire fabrics and other cultural products.
The state Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr Toyin Taiwo, made the disclosure while speaking with executives of the Association of Travels and Tourism Writers of Nigeria (ATTWN) who paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abeokuta.
He said the virus was a blessing in disguise as, according to him, it has helped to push the state government into pursuing an aggressive promotion of culture and tourism through online marketing.
He said the e-marketing strategy was a response to the challenges of COVID-19 as it affected culture and tourism, adding that the ravaging virus called for the redefinition of many things.
“It will surprise you that Ogun will be doing the first of its kind, once it is approved, by having our adire market online. We will be selling all these things again. All our products will be online; our cultural team, our cultural tours, our troops too will be online.
“Very soon, we are coming up with the virtual reality, whereby you can just sit down and experience all that you need to without even travelling physically to enjoy or explore these things,” he said.
Appreciating the association for the visit, he stressed the importance of collaboration to enhancing culture and tourism sector and added that the state government would make tourism attractive to the people.
The Commissioner also emphasised that Governor Dapo Abiodun placed priority on the development of the sector, noting that the government would ensure an enabling environment for private-public partnership to enhance the social development of the state.
Speaking earlier, the president of the ATTWN, Miss Omolola Itayemi, said the the association was formed to project culture and tourism through adequate and positive reportage.
She pledged the association’s collaboration with the state to project its activities to the world, adding: “We want to push tourism forward. Now is the important time to go back to domestic tourism. No state is as blessed as Ogun in all-round tourism.”
Itayemi commended the state for the annual drum festival in the state as it had put the state on the world tourism calendar and urged the ministry to create a festival calendar in order to make the people embrace culture and tourism.
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