With impressive visitations from across the world in the first half of 2019, Dubai has announced that Africa made up 5 percent of 9.58 million visitors to the city in the first half of 2019, with Nigeria leading the continent’s travellers with over 28 percent growth within the period. Nigeria ranked 17th in Dubai’s top source markets as at July 2019.
Isaam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), said the city welcomed 9.58 million international visitors as at July 2019.
“We have seen about 9.1 percent growth from Africa,” Kazim told CNBC Africa at the just concluded Akwaaba African Travel Market in Lagos.
“If you look at Nigeria, which is second on our global source market ranking and first within Africa, we have over 28 percent growth. It shows there is growth and more room for growth from Nigeria as well,” he said in a video seen by BusinessDay.
The interest in Africa, Kazim said, is in line with DTCM’s strategy which was rolled out in 2013 and focused on Dubai becoming the No.1 most visited city for business, leisure and events globally.
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“The numbers have been increasing year-on-year since then. Within that strategy, we know that Africa will play significant role on the leisure and business as well,” he said.
He attributed the Nigerian growth to sustained effort and support for Dubai’s marketing campaign over the years, easy access to the city, bouquet of competitive offerings, breathtaking man-made and natural attractions, among others, especially new ones that are aimed at offering fresh thrills to visitors.
Beyond Dubai, Nigeria is also a huge tourist source market for the United Kingdom, other European countries, United States of America, as well as African countries, especially South Africa, Kenya, Seychelles and even neighbouring Gambia and Ghana.
In 2016, Kenya recorded the highest number of Nigerian holiday-makers of over 17,000, up from 14,065 arrivals in 2015, and the number has grown since then.
Same year, Rwanda hosted over 20 Nigerian companies and about 5,000 individuals on corporate functions, and Ethiopian connected more Nigerians across the globe with its airline than all the African airlines put together.
Before the xenophobic attacks, Nigerians visited South Africa for tourism more than any other African country.
But experts are worried that while Nigerians lead in outbound tourism, the country’s numerous tourist attractions, especially the two World Heritage Sites and 10 natural and man-made attractions awaiting UNESCO’s enlisting, suffer from lack of visit by Nigerians.
Nigeria, with barely 2 million tourist arrivals, is making weak attempts at wooing international tourists while South Africa and Egypt, respectively, wooed 8.6 million and nearly 9 million international tourists in 2018, with the latter earning over $9 billion revenue from tourist receipt. The figures are expected to increase as both countries set new arrival and revenue targets for 2019.
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Bilikisu Abdul, president, Nigerian Association of Tour Operators (NATOP), blames the outbound trend on over-reliance on revenue from crude oil.
Mike Onuma, a tour operator, noted that the country needs to review and repackage its tourism products in a way that will appeal to global tourists, while supporting it with huge campaign.
He regretted that Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, the agency charged with the marketing and promotion of Nigeria, has not been living up to expectations and needs to be remodelled to be a destination marketing outfit void of bureaucracy.
He, however, said the country needs to improve on security as social media and even the mainstream media are awash with negative stories about Nigeria, which could scare visitors.
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