Lovers of books, lovers of culture, I am honoured to stand before you today in this beautiful farm where nature, intellect, and creativity have chosen to embrace each other.
We are gathered for books, but our minds are stretched beyond books. We are here to ask a question that is simple, what is the relationship between book reading and Tourism? Or what has tourism got to do with literature or in the local palance bawo ni itan aja se kan lemomu.
To answer these questions I will zero sum all to a question? Can tourism flourish without literature?
The answer is clear. The answer is loud. The answer is No!
Tourism and literature are twins. Literature documents. Tourism showcases. Literature interprets. Tourism demonstrates. Literature preserves. Tourism commercialises. Without one, the other limps. Without both, civilisation suffers.
And as Chinua Achebe warned us:
“Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”
Without literature, tourism has no voice. With literature, tourism speaks for itself.
Long before we saw the pyramids of Egypt, we read about them in scrolls. Long before we set our eyes on Zuma Rock, Achebe, Soyinka, T.M. Aluko, Kole Omotosho, Osundare, Pepper Clark, and our oral poets painted our land in words that stirred our imagination. Literature fires curiosity. Tourism satisfies it.
Think about it:
A waterfall without a story is just falling water.
A mountain without a myth is just stone and dust.
A festival without a narrative is just noise and dance.
It is literature that gives meaning. It is literature that gives memory. It is literature that makes a place sacred.
The Osun Osogbo Grove is not just a forest shrine. It is literature—poems, myths, songs, historical accounts—that elevated it to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Without literature, it would remain unknown, uncelebrated, unvisited.
Here in Ekiti, our land of honour, our land of pride, the story is the same. Olosunta, Abanijorin, Arinta Waterfall, Ipole-Iloro—without stories, without documentation, without qliterature—they are just rocks, water, and trees. But with literature, they become destinations, they become attractions, they become treasures.
That is why I am calling on you people here to like Susanne Wenger, the Mbari Mbayo, Nike Arts Gallery has employed the power of literature to turn Osun Osogbo into a must destination, likewise, I imploring, begging and pleading that the Farm ,Senator Femi Ojudu and the patrons of should help turn our Osun Igede the source of Osun River to a colony of history and literati destination .
And remember the words of Maya Angelou:
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Untold, our tourism sites die in silence. Told, they live forever.
It is on this note that I am using this opportunity to humbly inviting you all to Osun Igede ,the source of Osun River where the 2025 World Tourism Day would be celebrated on Saturday 27 2025. So that the story of this great treasure will not die
Tourism is not only what the eyes see. It is what the heart feels. It is what the mind remembers. Literature ensures that tourism is not fleeting but enduring. That after the dancer leaves, the drums still beat in the pages of a poem. That after the traveller departs, the memory still lives in the pages of a book.
All over the world, the greatest tourist destinations are powered by literature.
Shakespeare made Stratford-upon-Avon eternal.
Homer made Greece immortal.
Arabian Nights made the Middle East enchanting.
In the same way, Yoruba poetry, Ifa verses, proverbs, folktales, and modern literature will keep Ekiti alive in the imagination of the world.
That is why this Book Reading at the Farm is not just a literary event. It is a tourism experience. You have turned the farm into a destination. You have turned books into passports. You have turned readers into travellers.
As Director General of the Ekiti State Bureau of Tourism Development, I say to you: our vision for tourism is incomplete without literature. We are documenting, writing, and projecting Ekiti in words, pictures, anthologies, and digital stories. The world must read Ekiti before they visit Ekiti.
So, can tourism flourish without literature? I say again, No!
And here I borrow from John Steinbeck:
“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”
Literature is the compass of tourism. It guides, it explains, it interprets. Without it, tourism is a journey without meaning.
Let us write. Let us read. Let us tell our stories. For in our stories lies our tourism. And in our tourism lies our prosperity.
And let us remember the wisdom of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o:
“The story is the means by which we understand ourselves and others.”
If we tell our stories, the world will understand us, visit us, and celebrate us.
Now, before I leave, I ask you to join me in this refrain:
I say Literature — You say Tourism!
(Literature!) … Tourism!
(Literature!) … Tourism!
I say Stories — You say Prosperity!
(Stories!) … Prosperity!
(Stories!) … Prosperity!
Because without literature, tourism cannot flourish. And without tourism, literature loses one of its greatest stages. Together, they make nations proud and people prosperous.
Thank you, and God bless Ekiti State.
Thank you, and God bless Nigeria.
THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN TOURISM AND LITERATURE
BY AMB. WALE OJO-LANRE
