West African tourism rebounds at Akwaaba Travel Market

The last days of October witnessed an influx of visitors from over 20 countries across the world to Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria.

The visitors, who were majorly stakeholders in the travel and tourism sector, came for the Akwaaba Africa Travel Market (AfTM), the biggest travel expo in West Africa.

This year’s event, which is the 18th edition of the travel fair, spoke volumes on the resilience of the show, especially surpassing every previous edition in attendance, events, high profile speakers, volume of business and networking, as well as solution offerings.

From October 31-November 1, 2022, the world gathered at the Convention Centre, Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, the traditional home of the fair since inception, to celebrate the rebound of African tourism, especially after the lingering impact of the pandemic.

The event was the largest gathering of tourism stakeholders across West Africa since 2020, when the pandemic broke and disrupted open gatherings and large meetings.

It also had a spectacular opening ceremony with Dr. Memunatu Pratt, Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Sierra Leone; Olusegun Runsewe, director general, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Ikechi Uko, organiser of the fair, among other distinguished guests.

As expected, Akwaaba always spices each year’s edition with special outings and debut programmes.

One of such events is the honouring of Top 100 Travel and Tourism Women in Africa, with Justina Okpanku, veteran travel journalist and publisher of JustTours being honoured among the 100 deserving women at the awards.

Others include; Lady Maiden Alex Ibru, chairman, publisher and CEO, Guardian Newspapers; Esperanza Adjei, sales and marketing manager, Alisa Hotels, Ghana; Ime Udo, managing director, Leadway Travels; Liliane Rubengebenge, managing director, Fantastic Travel and Tours, Burundi, among others.

However, the 2022 major debut programme is Medical Tourism, which attracted medical outfits from Turkey to showcase their world-class advancement and modern practices in the medical field as well as seek local collaborations to ensure Nigerians get the best treatment as value for money, amid other exciting experiences.

In line with the development, a whole session was dedicated to medical tourism, with experts from within and abroad, speaking on trends in the field.

Speaking at the session Isa Usman, director, Turkish Healthcare Travel Council, Abuja Network, noted that for a good start and sustained boost to medical tourism in Africa, a conscious intra-bound and in-bound medical tourism must be developed. According to him, there is a need for political will by African governments in creating an enabling environment for healthcare service providers to thrive here.

Lagos is already working to redesign state-owned health facilities and positioning them for proper healthcare delivery as well as to boost medical tourism to the state from across the country and West Africa.

“Good medical facilities are designed to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, so all our designs now will have a significant low carbon footprint, at least 50 percent.

“We are redesigning our facilities such that it is keeping up with the climate change agenda to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and to rely more on designs to cool down the building and increase light into the building,” Akin Abayomi, a professor and Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, stated in his presentation at Akwaaba themed: “Medical Tourism and Lagos: How Lagos is Positioning for Medical Tourism”.

Another excitement and spice of this year’s edition is the partnership between Akwaaba and Wakanow, two strong travel brands out of Nigeria.

While speaking at a session on the theme, “Can Lagos become a Global Travel Destination of Choice?” Adebayo Adedeji, chief executive officer, Wakanow, who expressed his delight over the partnership and the success of Akwaaba African Travel Market in the past 18 years, said Lagos can and has everything it takes to become a global travel destination of choice.

He commended efforts of the Lagos State Government in creating an enabling environment for tourism and travel businesses to thrive, but insisted that Lagos can only become a global travel destination of choice when the right policies are in place to drive the sector.

But he thinks that travel and tourism stakeholders in the country need to embrace politics in order to influence government policies in the tourism sector.

According to him, policies hindering the growth of tourism and travels in Nigeria can only be tackled when practitioners in the industry engage in politics with the main aim of reshaping those policies.

Also speaking on the possibility of Lagos becoming a global destination of choice, Danny Kioupouroglou, general manager, Eko Hotels and Suites, said that Nigeria needs to improve on packaging itself, marketing its professionals, businesses, and destinations in order to attract global tourists in great numbers.

“Content creation for me is extremely important, we are very creative but we don’t package well,” he decried.

Dayo Adedayo, a British-trained Nigerian documentary photographer and author, insisted at the event panel that not only Lagos, Nigeria can become a destination of choice if Nigerians begin to love their country and tell positive stories about it as other countries have their negative sides too.

But he urged the government to play big in the project of attracting foreigners with favorable policies, and both enabling business and leisure environments.

Commenting at the panel, Ikechi Uko, organiser of Akwaaba Africa Travel Market, commended Lagos State on its stride at providing world-class infrastructure, which he noted are aiding the growth of tourism businesses in the state.

Read also: African tourism on spotlight at ATLF 2022

With such infrastructure and the pace at which the state is offering even more, Uko noted that Lagos could possibly take over as the global travel destination of choice.

“Lagos State has built more infrastructures in the last five years, compared to other 51 African countries, this is commendable,” Uko said.

Uganda Tourism Board used the Akwaaba platform to unveil ‘Explore Uganda’, the country’s new tourism campaign, while Tanzania, its neighboring East African country, which was well represented with a stand, also used the Akwaaba platform to intimate and woo Nigerians and West Africans to its Royal Tours.

The airlines had their fair share of reaching out to the visitors at the fair too. From Turkish Airline, Ethiopian Airline, Asky, intended passengers had deals with the airlines.

Of course, the Turkish medical personnel had a swell experience at the expo, meeting and connecting with potential medical tourism clients, amid some health insights.

This year’s edition also enjoyed the support of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), which offered a pre-event culinary delight at Wave Beach and an exhibition stand at the main event at Eko Hotel and Suites.

Nura Kangiwa, director general, NIHOTOUR, described Akwaaba as a viable platform through which the nation’s cuisines could be projected and marketed for global acceptance.

“At this year’s edition of Akwaaba, we in NIHOTOUR have tried to explore the platform to showcase our cuisines.

“We want the world to know how rich Nigerian cuisines are in terms of nutrition, medicinal properties and more.

“We are proud to be associated with Akwaaba, an expo with the most successful MICE event in Africa and we congratulate Ikechi Uko for the 18th edition of the expo,” he said.

Meanwhile, this year’s edition excited visitors at both the pre-opening and ending parties. For the pre-opening, the high profile guests were treated to Nigerian hospitality at Wave Beach, Elegushi, Lekki, while an exciting boar cruise saw the delegates panting for more and looking forward to the 2023 edition.

At the end, Uko, the organsier and his team, were happy to pull off the largest travel and tourism gathering in West Africa since the pandemic struck.

But the biggest news for the stakeholders, is that travel and tourism activities have rebounded in the region once again and the recovery will be sustained, Uko assured.