The Lagos State Governor, His Excellency Babajide Sanwo-Olu is among those that will be celebrated at the forthcoming 2025 African Youth Tourism Festival (AYTF) in Lagos.
According to the Convener of the event, Ambassador Ayo Omotoso made this known during an exclusive interview with Media Bypass News recently.
Omotoso praised the Governor for his genuine intention to support the event and for his continuous efforts to grow tourism activities in the state through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture led by Mrs. Toke Benson Awoyinka.
According to him, “Lagos is rising in tourism and entertainment as part of its Themes agenda as tourism supports a bottom-up kind of economy, where young people get something of life”.
The 2025 African Youth Tourism Festival has in collaboration with United Nation International Peace Commission, IPC, The Sally Mbanefo Foundation, Nikon, and Wikipedia and billed to hold in June from 12th to 15th in Lagos, Nigeria.
The organizer further mentioned other people to be celebrated at the event as Mrs. Sally Mbanefo of The Sally Mbanefo Foundation, Amb Hussani Coomassie of United Nations, International Peace Commission, IPC, Mrs. Nike Okundaye Davies of Nike Art Gallery.
“Also, Mrs. Salmwang Christiana, State Coordinator, Lagos State, Stelly Nelly and Wode Maya from Ghana, Daniel Kang’u from Uganda, CEO, RwandAir, Yvonne Makolo, Didier Bayeye of South Africa, and host of young minds, organizations supporting tourism initiatives”.
Omotoso who could not hold his excitement said he was inspired to create the Youth Tourism Platform for younger generations to see the beauty of life transformation for sustainable opportunities in tourism and allied industries.
“Those Opportunities abound in Music Tourism, Hospitality, Digital tourism Space, Real Estate, Sport Tourism, Agriculture, Environment, Photography, Art and Culture, Transportation, Content curation, Construction, Aviation, Fashion, Restaurants, and many more.“Tourism can save African youth populations by creating job opportunities, fostering economic growth, promoting community development. Tourism- related job, can offer well-paying positions and contribute to more stable employment for young people”.
He made it known that the African Youth Tourism Festival is conceived as an annual assembly of youths to engage, dream, create a proposition, and connect to tourism as an economic lifter. “It also brings out a broad spectrum of opportunities”.
Speaking on this year’s theme of the event, “Embrace Creative Tourism as a recipe for sustainable opportunities in Africa”, Amb. Omotoso said it connects highlights of creative content for excitement flow, depicting the feeling of inner-transformation.“Tourism is about growing the economy. It was published lately that The African Development Bank (AfDB) is investing $614 million in Nigeria’s digital, creative industries in a bold push to unlock youth entrepreneurship, grow the country’s non-oil economy, and create millions of jobs.
“This is to validate that the tourism sector is gradually getting the deserved attention. Africa is a continent teeming with youthful energy and untapped potential, boasting the world’s youngest population with more than 60% of the continent’s population.
“My message is that leaders across the board must embrace tourism starting with the local communities. The leadership of a destination should use God’s given tourism offerings to impact the lives of the citizens of a given country”, he stated.
