THE Lagos State tourism authorities have urged hotels, restaurants, travel agencies and other hospitality and tourism establishments operating in the state to ignore the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and its ongoing national registration of hotels and tourism-related exercise, saying that “NTDC is illegal”.
Furthermore, they said Lagos opposes imposition of multiple processes and regulatory requirements on tourism and hospitality establishments in Lagos State.
BusinessWorld Intelligence gathered that the rift between NTDC and Lagos State government has been ongoing and it bothers on regulation, control and revenue generation. The three tiers of government inundate the operators with order to pay rates and taxes.
While the NTDC said the corporation is mandated by a bye-law establishing it to supervise the various types of accommodation facilities in the country,  Lagos State government says their own is not an open field.
The director general of the NTDC Otunba Olusegun Runsewe in reaction told BusinessWorld in a telephone conversation that he would not like to join issues with the Lagos State Ministry for Tourism and Inter-Governmental Relations or anybody as the matter raised is already in court. When prodded further he said: “I have nothing to say until the Supreme Court comes up with judgment,” he said. “It is the supreme court which will declare NTDC legal or illegal”.
 Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism and Inter-Governmental Relations, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, meantime, said the “NTDC has overreached their own mandate and have become an uncreative, anachronistic, meddlesome interloper”.
Afikuyomi said this during the media interactive session of the ministry at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos last Tuesday.
“We will protect the businesses that operate in our state. It is our sacred responsibility to ensure that the people of the state can go about their legitimate businesses without any fear of intimidation, harassment and extortion by anyone. We will not allow multiple regulatory processes in our state. We will support the industry through infrastructural renewal and contingent support services to the industry.”
Lagos State can account for more than 70 per cent of the total (various types) of accommodation facilities which exist in the country. Lagos has added new hotels and convention centres; there is also expansion of established and well-recognised venues. The hospitality and leisure industry in Lagos has played a key role in the nation’s economy just as there is a rising popularity; a rise in income generation up to 6 per cent.
The hotel rates charged in Lagos are on the higher side, higher than those in Abuja, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Warri, Kano, Calabar or anywhere in the country. In fact, Lagos hotel rates are said to be one of the world’s highest. The nation’s tourism chiefs have seen the size of the market and upturn in investors enquiries.
Afikuyomi said they are irked by certain press advertisement and statements by the NTDC claiming falsely that “the NTDC is the apex tourism body to regulate, co-ordinate and harmonise all tourism activities in Nigeria, claiming that by reason of the Bye-law enacted in 1997 Section 1 Sub-section 3 which provides that “No person shall operate a hospitality or tourism related establishment without obtaining a licence from the corporation.”
The Commissioner said the above statement is “false, unconstitutional, null and void and therefore should be ignored.” Instead, he directed operators attention to Lagos State laws insisting that it is important to note that it is illegal for anybody (operator) or group to operate outside the Hotel Licence Amendment Law No. 23 Volume 43 Lagos State of Nigeria Official Gazette 2010, and the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Law No. 30 Volume 42 Lagos State of Nigeria Official Gazette of June 2009.
He stated that the above provision is superior to every other legislation and they clarify and limit the activities of the NTDC or Federal Government in relation only to tourist traffic.
While detailing the effort they have made to stop the NTDC, he gave pressmen a letter allegedly written by the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, to the Federal Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation (the boss of the supervisory ministry of NTDC) dated September 10, 2009.
The letter read in part that “As far as Lagos State is concerned, the core responsibility of tourism promotion is now a residual matter to be regulated by the various States Houses of Assembly in accordance with history, culture and other local circumstances of each.”