Families look for local alternatives to pricey summer trips

Despite foreign exchange stability and increase in flight options, many families that usually travel abroad for summer are shelving their holiday plans this year owing to high cost of travel and growing security concerns in some outbound destinations.

Sales for 2019 summer outbound bookings are unimpressive, according to travel agents who spoke with BusinessDay. The number of core clients and a few would-be clients has shrunk. The budget for holidaying abroad is too huge.

Flight bookings are down to about 40 percent, unlike this time last year when it was up to 60 percent, the travel agents tell BusinessDay. This is despite political stability in the country following successful general elections, sustained economic recovery and more flight options. Travel agents who had expected high record increase in both sales and customer engagement for the summer holiday this year seem disappointed.

“It is not funny. Most of my clients are lamenting that even with N1 million they cannot afford flight tickets for a family of four, aside from the costs of hotel accommodation, feeding, transportation, shopping, among others, which would sum up to at least N2 million,” Kike Osundare, a travel agent, tells BusinessDay.

Emmanuel Akagha, another travel agent, says the traditional outbound summer destinations for Nigerians such as London, Paris, New York, Florida, and Dubai are very expensive this summer, and even South Africa is only for those with deep pockets.

“At present, the cheapest airfares to London and Paris are from N500,000 for connecting flights, direct flights are nearing N1 million. Long-haul flights to the United States are higher with about 30 percent,” Akagha says.

He says though cheaper tickets and hotel rooms were available months before the summer, many holiday-makers left their plans until the last minute.

Standard rooms were from $100 before summer, for instance, but now they are going from $200 because of the high demand from tourists, he says. An increase in visitors also sees a rise in prices at bars, restaurants and even concert tickets.

With overseas summer holidays out of reach for many, families are looking to local alternatives.
Michael Eziashi, a parent, is looking to stay at Hi-Impact Planet Amusement Park, one of such home-groomed destinations beckoning on holiday-makers this summer, for two weeks instead of his proposed family holiday in Dubai.

Set on an expansive landscape on Km 12, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ibafo, Ogun State, the park is the biggest of its kind in Nigeria, a one-stop shop for family fun this summer.

“With N500,000 my family of four can comfortably stay for a week here. They have world-class rides and attractions for children, good accommodation for family, cinema, lounge and bars for nightlife. I think it is also secured. We are trying it out this summer,” Eziashi says.

With eyes on the N35,000 per night self-service apartment, three rides per day for his two children, lunch and dinner, timeout with his wife at the lounge, Tunde Alimi, a father of three, insists that he would spend as much as N500,000 for a five-day stay at Hi-Impact. He thinks the facilities are great, and offer a cheaper alternative to Dubai for a summer outing.

And students can also be positively engaged this summer at Hi-Impact with its boot camp tagged Hip Students’ Special, according to Abiola Adelanwa, its marketing executive. The boot camp, which is on till September 15, 2019, offers students free access in the park on Thursdays and Fridays to enjoy several rides and attractions amid exciting educational activities. Adelanwa says while the apartments, cinema and lounges entertain the parents, children and students can have unending fun with the rides and attractions on offer at the park.

Another domestic offering is the 48 hours at Uyo and Calabar in Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers State, respectively. Jude Mbeh, general manager, Remlords Tours, says the two-day tour package is targeted at promoting domestic tourism and offering Nigerians an alternative to overseas holiday, especially this summer.