Quality services and reliable statistics have been prescribed as the way forward to lifting the image of Cameroon's tourism industry.

That was the subject as stakeholders were drilled at a Bamenda seminar to conquer loyal clients in the face of competition gaining ground in Cameroon and the world. The Minister of State, Minister of Tourism and Leisure, Bello Bouba Maigari used the workshop to encourage know-how in the face of amateurism and careless attitudes by some promoters which threatens and soils the image of the tourism industry and Cameroon as a tourist destination since 2010.

Minister Bello Bouba Maigari stressed the need for quality reception and service as essential factors in the tourist industry because they significantly impact on the stay and opinion of clients in hotels, travel agencies and destination. Participants took home lessons on norms and reception techniques in the hotel industry, quality service and prerequisites, types of clients and client management techniques, historical background and key concepts of statistics, the importance of tourism statistics, collection and processing of statistics.

It was also a moment to discover the potentials of the tourism industry in the North West with Minister Bello Bouba Maigari taking time off to visit the pleasures of Lake Awing. It was against this backdrop that the Government Delegate to the Bamenda City council, Vincent Ndumu Nji revealed plans to transform the German Ford in the neighbourhood of Up Station, Bamenda into a cultural complex, training and professional centre for fine arts, a museum of Cameroon's civilisation, an auditorium for cultural displays and a library. He also stated preparedness to invest in a huge environmental project featuring recreational parks in an attempt to ensure that Bamenda consolidates its status as the city of tourist attractions, the city of friendship and hospitality. It was also time to highlight speed brakes like poor roads to tourist destinations, electricity blackouts that do not help matters and the invasion of the tourism industry by clandestine operators.