The organisers of Nigeria Travel Week, NTW has made a bold statement with its recent maiden outing.
This underscores the essence of Travel, tourism trade exhibitions and conferences which are among channels globally noted for the deepening of tourism markets and creating linkages by the various operators and stakeholders in the global trade, which is largely regarded as one of the largest employer of labour and economic tool for the development of the society.
Globally, the list of such channels is endless, with such notable ones as World Travel Market (WTM) in London, ITB Berlin and FITUR in Madrid. In Nigeria, the culture is yet to catch on with Akwaaba African Travel Market as the only such channel that has firmly established its foothold in the industry. The annual event, which is staged in Lagos, has continued to attract different Africa countries and hundreds of players in the industry to the country.
But last week, a new travel and tourism trade event, built on different concept and mission made its entrance to the scene in what many has described as a most fashionable and epoch making manner. Known as Nigeria Travel Week (NTW) and promoted by the owner of Avantgarde Tours, Efe Awhana, who is the chief executive officer of NTW in partnership with Afro Tourism, with Toni Ukachukwu, the chief executive officer of Afro Tourism as the chief operating officer of NTW with support from some key players and organisations across the travel spectrum, came with a bang.
Epoch making in many respects and one of such areas is the fact that for the first time, at least in the recent history of Nigeria tourism, for a hosted buyer travel event to hold in the country and not just hold but to attract the calibre of countries and people that its did.
A lot of countries, such as Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya, have over the years built their travel industry on this model by hosting yearly a hosted buyer travel event, whereby they identify key operators in source markets across the world and invite them to such events, solely responsible for their travel expenses, except for personal expenses not captured by the package.
With the birth of NTW, Nigeria has now successfully joined the ranks of countries where hosted buyer events thrive. It should be noted that whereas in those countries the hosted buyers are sponsored by the government through their national tourism administration bodies, however, in the case of Nigeria, there was no government involvement beside mere endorsement from the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), as the buyers were hosted at the expense of the organisers in conjunction with corporate sponsors.
This, in the estimation of followers of the industry, is what made NTW an historic and commendable event. To think that Nigerian travel operators, without perhaps the mega money and pre-requisite experience, could pull off such a feat successfully without any hitches is something many said is laudable.
They said it goes to prove that Nigeria tourism can attract the right source markets if it is properly organised with both the government and private sector working in tandem as opposed to the present practice where the government agencies and ministry in charge of tourism are far removed from the operators and carry on as if they are from outer space, impervious to the plight of the operators and the reality of the industry that they are meant to develop, grow and market.
As disclosed by the organisers, NTW was conceived: ‘‘As a multi – day tourism event platform that aims to drive the Nigeria tourism sector by bringing together buyers, consumers, travel techs, tourism/travel service providers and the media to network, review and discuss the development of tourism in Nigeria.’’
Furthermore, on what it set out to achieve: ‘‘To promote increase networking and partnerships between the different stakeholders in the travel industry. It will create awareness about the opportunities and potentialities in domestic and inbound tourism.
‘‘Nigeria Travel Week will stoke the yearning for travel to Nigeria from the domestic, African and other foreign source markets. It will nurture a culture of travelling both domestic and outbound in Nigeria.’’
To achieve this, a nine – day activities, beginning from Monday November 20 – Tuesday November 28, were executed, starting with pre – event tour, tourism golf cup, travel round table, travel hangout, village square and Nigeria tourism award. What was interesting and delightful about NTW was the fact that all of the events were novel in nature and finely executed by the team of young operators put together by the organisers.
Pre/post event tours
Over 15 delegates from over 10 countries attended the event as hosted buyers. The countries include: Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Israel, Uganda, Cyprus, Ghana, and Israel. The pre – event tour started on Monday with a tour of Badgary followed with city tour of Abeokuta on Tuesday and Lagos city tour on Wednesday while a two – day post – event tour held between November 27 – 28, spanning Akure city, Idanre hills, Smoking Hills Golf Resort in Ilara Mokin in Ondo State and Ikogosi Warm Spring in Ekiti State.
Tourism Golf Cup
Besides the tours, which were for the hosted buyers, the first public event of the Nigeria Travel Week started on Wednesday November 22, with the Tourism Golf Cup held at Nigeria’s premier club, Ikoyi Club 1938 golf course with a number of notable golfers and travel enthusiasts playing the 18 – hole golf course, all for the promotion of Nigeria tourism.
The Travel Roundtable
The second day, Thursday November 23, witnessed The Travel Roundtable held at The Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi. It was more of an informative, discussion and expository event with a number of travel operators in attendance. One of the most notable features of the Nigeria Travel Week in terms of attendance at the various events, was the fact that a number of the people where young, vibrant and new entrants to the industry with a burning desire to learn and network and of course a mix of the key players who are experienced and control mega resources and influence in the industry.
Tow panel discussions were held with the first one on the theme: Leveraging tourism for vibrant and sustainable development and the second on: National carrier and tourism development: Costs versus benefit. Coordinated by the publisher of Inside Watch Africa (IWA), Oluwaseyi Adegoke – Adeyemo, the first panel discussants were: Efe Awhana, Waturi Matu, a hosted buyer Kenya, Didier Bateye of Sun International Hotel, Mrs. Abiola Ogunbiyi of SJ Tours, Abiola Lawal of Flyboku.com and Ademola Sanya of British Airways.
Watu in her summation urged Nigerians to look inward by developing and promoting domestic tourism, which should serve as a springboard to developing its inbound tourism while also calling for the creation of a structured and formalised mode of communication and dialogue between the public and private sectors as that is the quickest and easiest way to bring about development in the industry rather than each working alone.
Furthermore, Watu, who was a former co-ordinator of East African Tourism Platform (EATP) called for indentifying the tourism assets, taking inventory of them and building on them to make them attractive even as she insisted that: ‘‘We must consume and exhaust our resources in our country and continent. The government must be involved in this.’’
On his part, Bateye draw attention to mass ignore among Africans of what exist within the continent and the lack of commitment to tourism by both the government and the people. To get Nigeria or African tourism on the winning way, he said all these must be gotten rid of and that Africans must learn to explore and develop Africa first.
For Mrs. Ogunbiyi, the task of building Nigeria tourism is solely that of the Nigerians and the government, disclosing that there exist enough laws and policies for the growth of the industry and that an enabling environment already exists but that what is missing in the space is the Nigerian people.
‘‘The issue is our mind set, we have the population and we can shut our doors as the Chinese did. The laws are there and government needs to look at these laws properly and do what the Chinese did by subsidising travel for their people to enable the people to consume tourism.’’
Sanya spoke of having a synergy between tourism and aviation and the economic benefits of both when fully developed. His advice is for the country to be made welcoming and that the individual has a greater role to play in this regard by ensuring that their spaces are made welcoming to visitors even as he emphasised on the concept of working from inside to the outside, by that, he said focus should be on domestic tourism.
Lawal dwell on the need to make tourism contribute immensely to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, as he said that the present 4 per cent contribution of tourism is not acceptable. Therefore, he said effort should be made to open up tourism and develop the value chain even as he drew attention to the unique Nigeria environment and amazing Nigerian people.
Awhana shared with the audience the underlining factor that gave birth to NTW: ‘‘My major underlining reason was my passion for domestic tourism. I saw the beauty that we have in our country. People actually also appreciate these things. There is nothing special or unique that we don’t have as a people and as a country.
‘‘What we don’t have is the confidence in our tourism assets. We need to tell our story ourselves. Therefore, we need to change the narrative about Nigeria and that is what this event is about. The industry needs to come together, and synergised as one. We also need to start making noise about ourselves and then attract the government to what we are doing as a private sector.’’
The second panel made of Mrs. Bukky Akomolafe of Travelstart Nigeria, Toni Ukachukwu of Afro Tourism, Dikko Nwachukwu of Jet West Airline, Alexander Nwuba of Smile Air, and Dr. Wolfang Thome of Eturbonews, who is one of the hosted buyers, as well as Mrs. Bunmi Archer of Leadway Assurance, dwell extensively on the issue of a national carrier and its benefits to the economy.
For Mrs. Akomolafe, having a national carrier at this pint may not be a wise decision as she said that is a low margin business and that what needs to be done is for the government to stimulate the economy and create the enabling environment to grow private sector operation.
While Ukachukwu, who is an aviation journalist, informed that the Nigerian government has already concluded on the establishment of a national carrier, therefore, cautioned that its management should be private sector driven. Thome, who gave a historical perspective on national carrier, said that they are presently financially challenged even as he emphasised on the importance of aviation to tourism.
However, he admonished that: ‘‘Where you have one (National carrier), by all means maintain it but where you don’t have one work with the existing airlines to build your economy and tourism.’’ While on his part, Nwuba said a national carrier is not needed by Nigeria but rather:
‘‘What we actually need is for the government to support local airlines to operate as flag carriers to multiple destinations.’’ He called for dealing with the fundamentals of the industry and focusing on essential airport services as well as bemoaning the fact that tourism cannot thrive in Nigeria when only six of about 30 airports in the country are viable.
Nwachukwu harped on the lack of disciple by airline management as the bane of Nigeria aviation: ‘‘The reason airlines fail in Nigeria is lack of disciple, we can be efficient if we embrace technology. Government needs to give incentives for operators to develop routes and destinations.’’
He also spoke on the importance of collaboration among the airlines while insisting that if a national carrier should be created that it should reflect the national need and character and that it management should not be politicised and interfered with by the government otherwise it would go the same way as the defunct Nigeria Airways.
Mrs. Archer expressed concern over having a national carrier given the chequered history of former national carrier while calling for what is economically viable for the development of Nigeria as a tourist destination. She also urged Nigerians to patronise Nigeria tourism as that is the only way to grow the industry even as she promised the development of special products to meet the needs of the industry by her company.
Work on poor service by Nigerian Immigration Service – Israeli tourist
A chest pumping session no doubt but every Nigerian in the hall on this fateful day was humbled by the experience narrated by Ephraim Shur, a hosted buyer from Israel. His narrative bothered on the poor service of the Nigerian Immigration Service underlined by the culture of ‘what do you have for us.’
According to shur, it took close to two hours to clear immigration at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos on the day of his arrival to the country. He said that the immigration officers on duty demanded $150 under the guise of ‘what do you have for us.’ Unfortunately, he didn’t decipher the meaning on time and was dumb founded when he eventually did.
Although he said he had no problem with paying the money but his issue was the long hours, over two hours that it took to get through even after paying the money (Bribe). He said this is bad for Nigeria tourism and image and that something urgently need to be done about the way the different level of officers working at the airport discharge their responsibilities, which he said is highly detrimental to the country’s image and affects the psyche of a visitor to the country.
He called for an efficient and efficient system to be put in place even as he questioned the rationale of immigration collecting $150 from visitors and yet can’t offer efficient service by ensuring that visitors spent lesser time on the queue. This he said is totally unfair and wearisome for travellers, especially long haul travellers.
Shur was not the only one on the trip that suffered this fate as others did but he was the only one that publicly shared his experience during the discussion for the purpose of effecting change in the attitude and operations of immigration and other officers at the airport.
This issue has become endemic as travel operators and travel journalists have consistently queried this untoward act, which impact negatively on Nigeria image and tourism with Nigeria airports being listed among the most unfriendly airports in the world.
It would appear that the ‘ease of doing business policy’ of the federal government means nothing to the immigration officers and our airport workers. The federal government needs to make the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other operatives at the airport account for this bad publicity and ill-treatment meted to visitors.
Village Square
The event held Friday November 24 evening at the Freedom Park, Lagos. It was essentially an occasion to showcase the best of Nigerian culture from its tangible to its intangible cultural items. People were dressed in the different Nigerian traditional attires, including the hosted buyers and other visitors at the venue.
Music, art, drama performance and local delicacies, including drinks, local brews, were served during the programme, which turned out to be quite entertaining and educative for the hosted buyers and other visitors that were exposed to the unique nature of Nigeria rich and vast culture.
Travel Hangout
This was another novelty event introduced by the organisers of the Nigeria Travel Week, which was held on Saturday November 25 morning at the Lekki Conservation Centre (LCC). It introduced the people to the rich eco tourism offering of Nigeria with many amazed by the canopy walkway, which is about the second largest in Africa.
Nigeria Tourism Awards
The last of the public event was the Nigeria Tourism Awards otherwise known as the Balearica Award, which was held on Saturday November 25 night at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. It was a colourful and entertaining night where those termed to have demonstrated excellence in service and product delivery as well as contributions to the growth of the tourism industry, were honoured.
It should be noted that again, the process for the award, was different from what exist in the land as the awardees were nominated by a panel of judges and voted for online by the Nigerian travelling public while Philips Consulting independently vetted the votes and submitted the list of the awardees on the night of the award.
Topping the list of the awardees was the governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, who was named the best tourism governor of the year. Also on the list was Obinna Emelike, the travel editor of Businessday Newspaper, who clinched the award for the best travel reporter (Print) of the year.
