Fair To Market Cameroon’s Tourism Envisaged

By Ticha Melanis in Limbe

Despite Cameroon’s rich and diverse cultural and tourism potential, it is unfortunate that the country is not well known abroad. This is because Cameroonians do not promote their tourism as expected.

               

Participants at the launch of the Limbe Tourism Fair

This was the opinion shared by the CEO of Flora Travels and Tour, Agatha Iyok, while speaking at a ceremony to announce the holding of a tourism fair from 4 to 7 November this year. She was speaking in on Friday in Limbe.

Iyok frowned at the fact that most Cameroonians neither visit nor explore other parts of their country making them strangers in their own country.

                She says it is for this reason that she came up with the idea of a tourism fair to showcase Cameroon’s tourist potentials, its cultures and traditions among others.

                She noted that the tourism sector in Cameroon has the potential of creating thousands of jobs and boosting the country’s economy and ensure environmental sustainability. 

                Iyok underscored the need for needed investments to be directed to the tourism sector in order to expand it.

                “Tourism is experiencing a number of setbacks in recent years, notably the effect of climate change as well as the crisis in the Anglophone regions. She called on all to be honest to identify the major challenges in the sector as she proposed some strategies to mitigate them. The facilitation of the process to obtain entry into Cameroon for tourist, an improvement in the transport sector, sensitization and proliferation of authentic information on tourism options in Cameroon were some of her proposals.

                The South West regional delegate for tourism and leisure, Mrs Efeti Monono Quan, said a tourism fair of such magnitude is a commendable venture because it would help to sell the tourist potential of the region especially at this time when people fear of insecurity and believe that nothing is happening.

                 “When the ministry has partners and representatives from other areas that can attend a fair like this, it gives hope to the population of the region that the tourism sector is alive and all is going well as far as tourism activities are concerned,” she said.

                Quizzed on the challenges faced by the tourism sector in the region, she said it is a collective effort by all stakeholders to promote tourism, even if the government has a greater role to play.

                Satisfied with the outcome of the launching of the fair, she hoped all will put hands on deck to make sure the November event is a success.  

Revelations during the launching said Cameroon received 572.788 tourists in 2010. The number grew to 900.000 by 2015, contributing 532.2 billion to the GDP. The tourism sector employed 141.500 people in 2015. The number is projected to increase by 2.9% yearly. 

Panel discussions, arts exhibition, poetry recital and musical performance spiced the launching.