The Lagos State Government unveiled Q4-Lagos Initiative to enhance tourism through effective capturing of statistics of tourism and entertainment activities in the state.
At the official launch of the initiative,the Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture Pharm. (Mrs.) Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, noted that the unveiling of the Q4-Lagos concept came about after several months of research, planning and stakeholders engagement.
According to her,Q4-Lagos, means 4 Quarters consisting of January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December, adding that it was developed as a term that will provide an all-round entertainment and fun for Lagosians and visitors to Lagos State.
She said:“This concept emanated from our findings which revealed that the numbers of visitors and tourists to Lagos State are not captured in statistics. With the idea of the Q4, the statistics of tourism and entertainment activities for each of the quarters can now be easily compiled and collated. The Ministry considered it worrisome that there are no reliable statistics and data about the numbers of visitors or tourists that visit Lagos on yearly basis. The data about their contributions to the state’s economy are often not captured as well.
“The need to change this, and have a more holistic data of tourists to Lagos State brought about the conceptualization of the Q4 Initiative which is intended to be a yearly event that will help market Lagos in such a way that tourists will always be looking forward to spend their holidays in Lagos as tourism and entertainment activities for the four quarters would have been collated for tourists to plan the quarter of the year they will visit Lagos.
“The decision of the Ministry to promote Q4-Lagos Initiatives was inspired by the infamous clarion call “Eko for Show!”, being a callout to the global tourism industry that Lagos is ready to assume her prime position as the destination for Tourism, Hospitality, Events and Holidays in each of the four quarters of the year. This concept also aligns with the mandate of the Ministry to develop and introduce new ideas that will further assist in harnessing the numerous opportunities for the growth and development of Tourism towards driving focus, visitors, and opportunities to Lagos’’
Akinbile-Yussuf reiterated the fact that the main focus is to use the platform of the initiative to establish LAGOS as the premier destination all season through a data-driven calendar of activities that will make data of visitors to the State readily available for immediate use and future reference.
She noted that the Q4 concept is not intended for revenue generation, stressing that the Ministry is interested in data collation of tourism activities to assist us in our planning purposes and statistics.
“Why the Ministry will not want to follow the path of enforcement and compliance, we will not hesitate to sanction any operator or stakeholder that refuses to cooperate with the Ministry in this data collation efforts.
