Creative Industry

Nihoutour To Host Biggest Gastronomy Festival In Abuja

Published

4 years ago

March 28, 2023

Joel Ajayi

The Management of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) have announced their hosting of Gastronomy Festival at the sprawling Abuja International Conference Centre on the 16th and 17th of June, 2023.

This year’s Gastronomy Festival is the third consecutive food and beverage exhibition and sampling event annually organized by NIHOTOUR since 2021. The theme for this year’s event is Culinary Arts: The Gate Way to Growing Tourism Destination.

Disclosing highlights of the Gastronomy Festival in his office in Abuja, Nura Sani Kangiwa, Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NIHOTOUR, said the event will feature amongst others, exhibition of indigenous gastronomy by exhibitors prominent among which are, the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), that will as usual, showcase indigenous Nigerian cuisines from the six-geopolitical zones of the country.

The National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism of Nigeria is established by an Act of Parliament to train, certify and register personnel in Nigeria’s Hospitality, Travel and Tourism sector.

Accordingly, NIHOTOUR Gastronomy Festival is conceptualised to upskill Nigerian gastronomes on the nitty-gritties of the preparation and presentation of foods, especially Nigerian traditional cuisines, with the objective of improving the expertise of personnel in the industry.

Moreover, due to the dearth of skilled culinary artists in Nigeria, NIHOTOUR Gastronomy Festival provides one of the best opportunities for hospitality and tourism stakeholders, students, and enthusiasts to have hands-on learning and perspectives on the sustainability of developing tourism destinations using activities of Gastronomy Festivals as promotional tools.

Further to that, with the preponderance of ‘Bush Meat’ hunting, using traps, in Nigeria, which inadvertently endangers wildlife and hinders Nigeria’s wildlife conservation efforts, the Gastronomy Festival will copiously advocate for Responsible Tourism practises in Nigeria.

Expectedly, NIHOTOUR’s Gastronomy Festival is one of the largest and most culturally eclectic culinary arts and related gastronomy event in Africa. The event attracts over 5000 visitors and industry stakeholders who participate in the experiential learning of food production, processes and indulge in free sampling of diverse Nigerian and international cuisines and beverages on display.

Typically, the festival is laced with traditional gaiety and entertainments that highlight Nigeria’s rich cultural diversity, including musicals and dance choreography.

In previous NIHOTOUR Gastronomy Festivals, large corporate organizations, such as Fan Milk, Danone and the Diplomatic Community in Nigeria, including, China, Spain and Ethiopia showcased their countries’ food culture and revealed processes of cuisines preparation – from farm to the table.

This year’s event will attract more foreign missions and corporate Nigerian brands involved in food and beverage processing, research, and development. Following the successes of previous NIHOTOUR Gastronomy Festivals, activities slated for this year’s 2-day event include Nigerian food and beverage exhibition by NIHOTOUR and other leading restaurant franchises; international cuisines showcasing by foreign missions in Nigeria; cooking competition by Nigerian culinary schools, ‘Jollof War’ by select West African chefs; and investiture of NIHOTOUR Fellowship on outstanding individuals who have immensely contributed to the development of Hospitality and Tourism sector in Nigeria.

There would also be conferences involving Nigeria’s leading tourism and hospitality stakeholders and business operators, as members of the Hospitality and Tourism Sector Skills Council of Nigeria (HTSSCN).

Additionally, NIHOTOUR would deliver training and masterclass for members of the Association of Nigerian Journalists and Travel Writers (ANJET).

The facilitators slated for ANJET training include Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, the Director General of National Council for Arts and Culture; Mr. Buky Ponle, the Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria; and Peter Igho, the brain behind some of the most popular programs on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) that enthralled households in the 1970s and the 1990s.

It is empirically evident that Gastronomy is currently one of the main tourisms ‘push and pull’ factors that attract travellers to a destination.

Hence, gastronomy has become a strategic tourist product that contributes to employment of host community’s youths and women, creation of wealth for investors, increased revenue streams for governments and improving the value – chain of producing quality foods and processing the foods to hotels and catering outlets for the tourism industry.

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Creative Industry

FG Backs MyCityApp Launch of 100-Day Tourism Calendar to Drive $100bn Economic Growth

Published

3 weeks ago

September 15, 2026

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The Federal Government has thrown its weight behind the launch of MyCityApp, a Nigerian city discovery and tourism platform designed to aggregate festivals, concerts, cultural events and lifestyle experiences into a single digital calendar.

The platform, which flags off the 100-Day Tourism Calendar, was unveiled on Monday at the Ember2Remember National Stakeholders’ Conference in Victoria Island, Lagos, with the initiative targeting Nigeria’s estimated $100 billion tourism and creative economy opportunity.

In a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by the Media and Publicity Adviser to the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, the ministry said the conference was aimed at mobilising public and private stakeholders to transform the September-to-December festive period into jobs, investment and economic growth.

Speaking at the unveiling, the Minister, Hannatu Musa Musawa, said millions of visitors travel across Nigeria every year to celebrate, reconnect and experience the country’s diverse culture, stressing that the festive season could be deliberately organised and monetised to strengthen tourism’s contribution to the economy.

“This initiative is about moving beyond the traditional concept of a festive season. It is about deliberately organising, packaging, promoting, and monetising one of the most economically active periods in our national calendar,” Musawa said.

She noted that every visitor generates economic activity across several sectors, including aviation, transportation, hospitality, restaurants, entertainment, retail, technology, artisans and local communities.

The Minister commended MyCityApp Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Ifeoma Chukwu, for her vision and commitment to the initiative.

She urged state governments, event organisers, tourism operators, hospitality businesses and other stakeholders to list their festivals, concerts, exhibitions, food experiences, cultural celebrations, fashion and sporting events on the national calendar.

Musawa said the platform would enable Nigerians, members of the diaspora and international visitors to discover tourism and entertainment experiences across the country from a single, credible source.

Earlier, Chukwu said Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage and creative sector provided enormous opportunities for tourism-driven economic growth.

She cited the contributions of tourism to the economies of countries such as Spain, France and the United States, arguing that Nigeria could equally build a $100 billion tourism economy.

Also present were Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Toke Benson-Awoyinka; Enugu State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Ugochi Madueke; NCAC Director-General, Obi Asika; National Gallery of Art Director-General, Ahmed Sodangi; ARCON Director-General, Dr Olalekan Fadolapo; and MTN Nigeria CEO, Dr Karl Toriola.

MyLagosApp and MyCityApp will serve as the digital engines of the calendar, distributing events through a 360-degree media ecosystem to audiences in Nigeria and the diaspora.

Stakeholders were encouraged to upload their events on MyCityApp to participate in the national tourism calendar urging them to upload events on http://www.MyCityApp.io.

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