The National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) says international cuisines will be exhibited at the Nigeria Gastronomy Festival to enable local hospitality practitioners learn best practices from other climes.
Alhaji Nura Kangiwa, Director-General of NIHOTOUR, disclosed this on Friday in Abuja during a training session organised for the Association of Nigerian Journalists and Travel Writers (ANJET).
The theme for the training is “Best Practices for Journalistic Reporting of Tourism Destinations”.
Kangiwa said the festival would expose Nigerians to best practices in packaging, presentation, processing, preparation and promotion of local cuisines.
He said this was one of NIHOTOUR’s mandate as he promised that the institute would do everything within its capacity to ensure the mandate was achieved for advancement in the industry.
“A lot of people have asked me why we decided to showcase international cuisines along with our local cuisines during the third edition of the gastronomy festival.
“This is to expose Nigerians to best practises in food processing, production, packaging, promotion and presentation. These are skills lacking amongst us here.
“I want Nigerians to rub shoulders with international chefs to be able to adopt good standard of handling cuisines,” he said.
Kangiwa noted that international chefs from Spain, Germany, Côte D’Ivoire, Trinidad and Tobago as well as many other countries were expected at the programme.
He advised members of ANJET to intensify efforts in producing honest and balanced reports to ensure improved inflow of tourists to the nation.
He noted that the quality of reports churned out by travel and tourism journalists would go a long way in determining tourists’ impression about Nigeria.
He commended the media for maintaining cordial relationships with practitioners in the hospitality and tourism industries over the years. According to him, this has helped in developing the industries.