Cross River counts gains after Carnival Calabar

…As 2024 surpasses past editions in revenue, attendance, content

The Cross River State government has declared the 2024 edition of the annual Carnival Calabar as the most successful in the 20 years of the 32-day extravaganza, as it broke all records, amid huge boost for its tourism sector.

According to data released this January by the Research Department, Cross River State Tourism Bureau, the carnival, which is unarguably, the biggest street party in Africa, for the first time in the 20 years of its inception, surpassed feats achieved in the previous editions.

In 2024, the Calabar Festival extravaganza, a spectacular event that showcases the richness of Calabar culture, while featuring a wide range of activities and events, outweighed the 2023 edition attendance by 42 percent, according to the Tourism Bureau.

“An estimated 450,000 onsite spectators witnessed the Carnival Calabar Event, the Cultural Carnival, the Children’s Carnival and the Bikers Carnival events as against the 279,486 onsite spectators recorded in 2023.

“Over 1.2 billion viewers watched the Calabar Festival events on DSTV channel 198 across the world.

Live online streaming of over 100 million viewers was recorded within the festival period,” the data revealed.

For the first time in its history, the Margaret Ekpo International Airport Calabar, recorded over 10,000 inbound passenger between November 1, and December 29, 2024.

About 79 percent of the passengers, according to the Tourism Bureau, were visiting from other states of Nigeria, 3 percent from diaspora, majorly for leisure and to attend the Carnival Calabar.

The figure rose from 7, 452 recorded in 2023 within the same period, to over 10,000 as recorded in 2024.

Detailing the figures further, the Research Department, Cross River State Tourism Bureau, noted that for the over 150,000 tourists, who visited Calabar in December, 2024, 89 percent came by road, 7 percent by air and 4 percent by sea, as well as an estimated N8.875 billion was spent on transportation by the visitors to the destination.

“The number of visitors into the destination for the 2024 Calabar festival outweighed that of 2023 by 42 percent. “A total number of 62,512 visitors were estimated to have visited the destination for the 2023 Calabar festivals and carnival, spending about N3.1billion on transportation to the destination,” the data showed.

Also, most of the visitors were from the neighbouring Akwa Ibom and Abia states, Lagos, Port Harcourt, FCT and Enugu, while the foreigners came from Cameroon, United Kingdom, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, among others.

But while the state recorded over 150,000 visitors during the carnival period, it recorded over 300,000 tourists from November 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024, who came for site seeing of its exciting tourism potential, especially the Obudu Mountain Resort, Marina Resort, Kwa Falls, among others.

The data also showed that most of the tourists were from Abuja, Lagos State, and neighbouring Akwa Ibom State. Again, the 300,000 tourists feat is almost double of the over 190,345 tourists recorded in 2023.

The data also revealed gains in the hospitality sector. “Throughout the period under review, November – December, 2024, the occupancy rate of accommodation establishments in Calabar rose to 68 percent from 57 percent in 2023. More than 90 percent of hotels in Calabar had a 100 percent occupancy rate between December 15 – December 29, 2024.

“Revenue generated from hotel bookings is estimated at N2.79 billion ($1.74 million) with N25,000 per night confirmed hotel bookings in December alone for about 3,600 available bed spaces in Calabar Cluster.

“Revenue from food and breakfast alone stood at an estimated N900 million ($562,000),” the data showed.

Meanwhile, nine hotels generated more than 54 percent of the revenue from hotel bookings. They include; Hogis Royale, Metropolitan Hotel, Hogis Hotel, Monty Suits, UG Willis Hotel, Moju Hotel, Danic Hotel, Dallas Suits and De Grand Hotel.
But Hogis Royal and Moju Hotel were not major contributors to the 2023 revenue bookings as there were not in full operation then.

The state also made an estimated N100 million ($66,000) from major ticketed events including; the Funfest, Calabar Fashion Show and Queen of Humanity. Roman, Zero Arena, Amber Lounge, Club Voltage and Bays Bar, the five major night clubs, also generated N400 million ($267, 000), within the period under review.

The data also revealed that activities such as online streaming, food and drinks, dancers and car rentals generated an estimated N1billion ($667,000).

Excited at the feats, Gab Onah, chairman, Carnival Calabar Commission, noted that the growth is a sign of the rebound of tourism in the state, as the government has assured on its commitment to bring tourists back to ‘Destination Cross River’ and also to make tourism count and contribute to its economic growth.