Tourism in Nigeria: Uko calls for Gov’t support towards private sector initiatives for growth 

Nigeria’s renowned travel expert and organizer of Akwaaba African Travel Market, Ikechi Uko has called on the Federal and State Governments in the country to actively support private sector initiatives aimed at fostering domestic tourism. 

Uko made this call at the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce Breakfast meeting sponsored by Phillips Consulting as part of its 30th anniversary, where he (Uko) was the Guest Speaker on the topic “Rethinking Tourism In Nigeria.” 

In his delivery, Uko proposed three ways to rethink tourism in Nigeria. One of such ways, according to him, is that Nigeria should “stop doing stupid things, start doing smart things and plan for the future, quoting Fareed Zakaria of CNN.

He highlighted the historical lack of government support for private sector efforts to drive domestic tourism, emphasizing the crucial role played by private firms and a select few states in this regard. 

He underscored the importance of government support for domestic tourism using the highly successful Kenya Tourism Board’s “Tembea Kenya” as an example, and the South African Tourism Sho’t Left  project as another one.

Specifically, Uko 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. 

According to him, a survey of the Top 10 Domestic destinations included those states with Akwa Ibom joining for the first time in 2022 as a result of Naija7Wonders and NATOP AGM. 

He identified the reasons why Nigerians travel using data on passenger traffic from Nigeria over the past years, which shows that VFR, religion, business, school, leisure, M.I.C.E, Medical and ‘JAPA ‘ are the major reasons for travels to the top destination of UK, USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Canada and India.

Uko talked about the potential of leveraging the global success of Nigerian artists in the music industry to enhance tourism. 

He noted that Nigerian music has become widely popular across African countries as it is the most streamed Music in most African countries except in some South African countries and the 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 UEFA Cup Finals, Davido played at World Cup finals, Tems played at 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,” Uko said.

Critical to the success of domestic tourism, the tourism Expert emphasized the need for the government 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 ignoring those that have proved to

contribute to tourism growth. 

For a shift in priorities, Uko called on the government to recognize 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, Uko highlighted the need to address the challenges faced in the inbound category and emphasized prioritizing support for globally recognized events like Afro Nation, Detty December, AFRIMA, and Experience by House on the Rock to achieve tourism goals using music.

“Nigeria is a global giant in outbound travel, spending over $1.5 billion on tickets and over $2 billion on medical tourism. It is a dwarf of 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,” said Uko.

He further suggested that leveraging religious tourism through events such as the Osun Osogbo festival, Synagogue Church of All Nations and other mega churches would draw visitors. 

Uko also proposed the promotion of cultural events like the Eyo Festival, New Yam Festival, Bini Igue festival, Argungu Fish Festival, and Durbar Festivals.

According to him, Carnival Calabar is successful because it is contemporary in nature and has a mass appeal globally.

To transform tourist attractions in the country, Uko recommended that Nollywood Villages be established by creating theme parks based on popular movies to build on the success of the Nigerian movie industry. 

“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,” Uko advised.

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, specialise and dominate identified niches.

He noted that the last 20 years shows that the most important thing to change tourism in Nigeria is appointing the right people to lead the industry. 

According to him, without appointing the right people to manage tourism in the country, outbound travels that are driven by profit only will continue to dominate tourism in Nigeria.