By Prince Okafor

The Federal and State Governments have been called to actively support private sector initiatives aimed at fostering domestic tourism in the country.

This was the submission of Ikechi Uko, a renowned travel expert and organizer of West Africa’s largest trade exhibition event, Akwaaba in Nigeria.

Uko who was a guest speaker at the Nigerian South African Chamber of Commerce Breakfast meeting, with the theme, “Rethinking Tourism In Nigeria.” proposed three ways to rethink tourism in Nigeria.

He lamented the lack of government support for private sector efforts to drive domestic tourism.

He noted that the industry plays a significant role by private firms and a select few states in this regard.

He specifically mentioned the positive impact created by projects such as Naija7Wonders, Nigeria Tourism Lovers, Goge Africa and Naija Explorers, which have been at the forefront of driving domestic tourism growth, with states like Cross River, Osun, Lagos, Akwa Ibom and Ekiti actively participating.

He said: “Data sourced from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, and National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies, NANTA, and the top five travel agents in Nigeria shows that VFR, religion, business, school, leisure, M.I.C.E, Medical and ‘JAPA ‘ are the major reasons for travels to the top destinations like UK, USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Canada and India.

“Nigerian music has become widely popular across African countries as it is the most streamed music in most African countries except in some countries in the Southern region of the continent.

“The federal government should seize the opportunity to promote the country as a tourist destination.

“Rema played at the Ballon D’or Awards, Burna Boy played at the UEFA Cup Finals, Davido played at the World Cup finals, Tems played at the NBA All Stars and Tiwa Savage played at the Coronation of Kings Charles. These are powerful endorsements that can be parlayed into wonderful tourism products.

“The federal government needs to ensure the safety of citizens and visitors, make the available Infrastructure effective and efficient and support Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) events capable of attracting tourists, especially from abroad.”

He criticized the allocation of government funds to events that do not bring in any tourists either from abroad or Nigeria and ignored those that have proved to contribute to tourism growth.

“Government needs to recognise and support private sector efforts that have successfully ignited domestic tourism in Nigeria over the past four years.

“While Nigeria is a giant in outbound tourism, there is a need to address the challenges faced in the inbound category.

“Prioritizing support for globally recognized events like Afro Nation, Detty December, AFRIMA, and Experience by House on the Rock is necessary to achieve tourism goals using music.

“Nigeria is a global giant in outbound Travel spending over $1.5b buying tickets and over $2b on medical tourism it is a dwarf on inbound and domestic tourism. This has to change.”

“The government has for a long time ignored private efforts to grow domestic tourism. Private sector efforts have not received government support in the last 4 years but have been largely successful in igniting interest in tourism in Nigeria. Both the Federal and State Governments should support projects that grow domestic tourism.”

Furthermore, he suggested leveraging religious tourism through events such as the Osun Osogbo festival, Synagogue of Church All Nations events along mega-churches that draw visitors. He also proposed promoting cultural events like the Eyo Festival, New Yam Festival, Bini Igue Festival, Argungu Fish Festival, and Durbar Festivals. Carnival Calabar he said is successful because it is contemporary and has a mass appeal globally.

To further boost tourism, he recommended building on the success of the Nigerian movie industry by establishing Nollywood Villages and creating theme parks based on popular movies. Lagos nightlife is rated as the best in Africa competing only with Johannesburg in South Africa and should be a major draw.

Nigeria should market this in the right places. In conclusion, he urged a new thinking that would, organise the industry by appointing people who know tourism and are enthusiastic to work for the industry, develop strategies for the development and growth of the industry, start marketing in the right markets, and specialise and dominate identified niches.

The last 20 years he said show that the most important thing to change tourism in Nigeria is appointing the right people to lead the industry. Without doing that outbound travel that is driven by profit only will continue to dominate tourism in Nigeria.
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