Nigeria’s ex-beauty queen, Rosemary Okeke, has said she set up Romarox Resources as a vehicle to promote tourism in the country through a national photo competition organised annually to encourage people to reconnect with nature. Okeke said although she went into fashion designing soon after her reign, she discovered over a period of time that she was always attracted to tourism but rather than go into organising the Miss Tourism Beauty Pageant, she opted for the national photo competition as a way of growing the tourism sector and aiding its sustainability.
Speaking about this year’s edition, she said, “Romarox Tourism Photo Competition, as it is called, is the first and largest national tourism photo competition endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation in 2012. RTPC strives to engage the Nigerian population to appreciate and connect with the environment, in an effort to elicit domestic and international interest as it pertains to tourism in Nigeria. We believe in the beauty, originality and depth of our fatherland.
“Though we have been scathed by ethnicity, religion and violence, we are a people of peace and we spread the message of love and hope everywhere we go. Not only that, we are concerned about passing down the values of our deep heritage of love and brotherliness to the downtrodden, the less privileged and the marginalised people among us through our skills empowerment projects aimed at improving their socio-economic well-being.”
The focus of the project is for Nigerians to participate in the competition, which is based on people, their way of life, environment, pleasure and icons.
“With the advent of smart phones and all shades of cameras, all you need is get a good shot of your choice location and upload it to qualify for the competition, so long as it is from a rich ecosystem, or nature-based,mysterious monuments like dolmens, festivals, milestones of history, homes carved on rocks, and cave-dwellers, versatile gardens, stones, unusual trees either in growth, age, height or circumference etc.”
The ex-beauty queen admitted that her tourism project could help raise environmental, cultural and social awareness in various sectors of the economy, while increased interest would help create jobs and wealth for the teeming population.
“By highlighting our tourism and cultural heritage pictorially, we are wooing people to come to us, to visit Nigeria, as a choice destination and for the ultimate travel experience second to none in Africa and the world at large.