Experts in the aviation and tourism sectors say global branding, quality infrastructure and local airlines with capacity to reciprocate Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) are critical to unlocking Nigeria’s tourism potential.
At the BusinessDay Tourism Conference held in Lagos on Wednesday, the experts argued that lack of airlines with the capacity to partner international carriers to feed local routes is stifling the growth of Nigeria’s inbound tourism.
Seyi Adewale, chief executive officer, Mainstream Cargo Ltd, decried the absence of Nigerian airlines on international routes, noting that this is part of the setbacks to the growth of the country’s tourism.
Adewale, who spoke as a panellist during the conference themed, ‘Unlocking Nigeria’s Tourism Potential: Strategies for Sustainable Growth and Global Competitiveness’, said it would be difficult to unlock the country’s tourism potential without a handshake between the aviation and tourism industries.
“The starting point is how private airlines can take BASA seriously and use it to attract people to Nigeria. To encourage tourism as much as possible, private airlines need to reciprocate BASA.
“BASA is between countries. Rwanda is attracting a lot of tourists. They go to places where there are content creators and take them on tours, offering them affordable packages. We are not using BASA to showcase Nigeria,” Adewale said.
He said the situation might be worse as the hope of some local airline operators to fly into routes in the United States was dashed recently after Nigeria was removed from the United States Federal Aviation Administration Category One Status (USFAA CAT 1) for the International Aviation Safety Assessment programme (IASA).
The new USFAA law says that the failure of any country’s airline to operate directly into the US for two years or vice-versa would lead to the loss of the Category One status.
Read also: Absence of local airlines on international routes threat to tourism growth in Nigeria – Adewale
Adewale noted that transit buses and information desks are needed across Nigerian airports to allow easy passenger movements.
“The first thing I look for at any airport I visit outside Nigeria is the information desk. You need transit buses. We need feeder airlines on our local routes to take passengers from international airlines to their home destinations.
“There is no real hotel-based airport at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA), Lagos. The one proposed to be built by MMA2 was stopped. If I fly in late at the airport, I am supposed to walk into a hotel through a bridge that is connected to the airport. These are part of the infrastructure that drives tourism,” he added.
Ademola Oduwole, global branding and tourism development strategist and former advisor to the governments of Fiji, Tanzania and Mauritius, said that branding is crucial to Nigeria’s tourism growth.
Oduwole, who was also as a panellist at the conference, said that Nigeria lacks a global brand, and building one is crucial for recognition and tourism growth, even without extensive infrastructure.
He gave an illustration of an empty warehouse, a jar of honey and ants to describe how global branding can boost the tourism growth in the country.
“When you pour a jar of honey on the floor, and you lock the warehouse and take off, when you come back a few minutes later, what are you going to find? Ants.
“The question is, who are the ants? How did the ants get there? No infrastructure, nothing. They plot their way. They choose their way. They broke their way in there. This is how tourism works,” Oduwole explained.
Lola Ade-John, minister of tourism, said Nigeria’s tourism industry employs 1.91 million people and has grown by 13.1 percent since 2022.
These figures, she said, are a scratch on the surface as Nigeria has attractions, festivals, and events that could be tapped to boost tourism, such that it contributes much more to the gross domestic product (GDP).
Ade-John, who was represented by Otoide Ayemere, special adviser, technical to the tourism minister, said the Ministry of Tourism hopes to amplify the voices of what people are doing in the space to pave the way forward for the tourism sector.
“We have thousands of attractions and festivals from every single state. We are sleeping on a bicycle by not pushing forward the assets we have. By tapping into our domestic market alone, we would create job opportunities for the rural people.
“To boost tourism, we need community engagement and skills development. While tourism contributes merely three percent of total employment, we need more. To harness this potential, we have launched two key initiatives which involve equipping local communities with tools through workshops, awareness programmes and ensuring every Nigeria has a stake,” the minister said.
Read also: Branding crucial for Nigeria Tourism growth – Oduwole
She stressed the need for the public and private sector to collaborate to create tourism products, highlighting the Nigerian people, culture, products and places, amongst others.
Iyadunni Atinuke Gbadebo, director, sales and marketing, Eko Hotel, who had spoken earlier during the event, said oil has become old and unattractive, while human capital development is now key to unlocking Nigeria’s tourism potential.
“We have everything we need to flourish as a people and we need to seize the opportunity to tell a positive story about Nigeria. We hope we can get the opportunity to bring the theatre back on stage. The National Theatre, which is being refurbished, is bringing hope back again.
“Today, it is more expensive to hire a Nigerian music artist than to hire an artist from the diaspora. While many Nigerians have decided to ‘Japa,’ for the rest of us, we have to use the opportunities and resources we have here,” Atinuke said.
Frank Aigbogun, publisher of BusinessDay, said the story of Mauritius, with a population size of 1.3 million that has risen from growing and harvesting sugarcane to becoming a tourist destination, is a lesson for Nigeria.
Aigbogun, who was represented by Tayo Fagbule, editor of BusinessDay, said Rwanda did not allow its safety history of ethnic war to set it back but has become a tourism powerhouse despite social hiccups, urging Nigeria to pick one or two lessons from the country’s success.
Ime Udo, special adviser on culture and tourism to the governor of Akwa Ibom State, emphasised the need for accurate and accessible signage to help and include individuals with disabilities to navigate complex spaces in tourism.
Udo said that she is aware that the ministry has this in mind and is likely to put it in as part of the National Tourism Policy.
