By Benson Ezugwu
Calabar – The Cross River Government says it has taken its new initiative on tourism and culture to schools across the state, in order to ensure sustainable development of the sector.
Mr Eric Anderson, the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism in the state disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar.
Anderson said that government had deemed it necessary to create more awareness on culture and tourism to enable the people to develop more interest in the area as a viable sector of the economy.
“We have introduced Tourism and Digital Media in our schools with a view to inculcating the spirit of tourism into our students.
“This is part of the measures we have taken to ensure that Cross River remains the tourism destination, not only in Nigeria, but in African as whole,” he said.
He said that the state sent a contingent to Rio de Janerio in Brazil early this year to participate in an international carnival, adding that Cross River was the first to do so in the country.
The commissioner added that the state considered tourism as a major source of revenue through branding and rebranding of tourism activities.
“Since the inception of the present administration under Prof. Ben Ayade, government has introduced a lot of innovations in the annual Calabar Christmas Carnival to attract more investors.
“Besides that, the governor created a Ministry for Culture and Tourism which had never been done in the past.
“We are not relenting by introducing more attractive measures like what we saw in Rio,” he added