Ibrahim Ramalan writes on the renewed effort by the NTDC to promote demestic tourism in Nigeria
The director general, Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation, Mrs. Sally Mbanefo has upped the hope of many Nigerians when she highlighted some of great potentials tourism has in this country, especially in the area of job creation and and poverty reduction. “The domestic tourism market has very high revenue and job creation potentials. For instance, 2013 Osun Osogbo festival recorded 21,713 domestic tourists including, 123 international tourists while N 58,230,170 forms the expenditure.- Abuja Carnival [2013] recorded 19,015 domestic tourists which includes 113 international tourists while N147, 385,250 forms the expenditure. -Religious tourism recorded over a million domestic tourists and a substantial number of international tourists in 2013.” The Director General made this known in a speech she delivered during Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN), Nigeria Tourism Investors Forum And Exhibition held at Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Abuja.
“Most recent data show that current global tourism contributions to GDP is approaching US$ 7 trillion, accounting for 9.3% of total global GDP and that the industry accounts for 8.7% of global employment with an estimated annual growth rate of 2.4%.”
Domestic tourism is the type of tourism where people vacate within their own country. It is one of the three categories of tourism with the others being inbound and outbound tourism. She further emphasised that it is historically the first form of tourism that was practised and today it continues to account for the most part of this activity by far: “it is estimated that out of the 4.8 billion tourist arrivals per year [2008 figure], 4 billion, or 83%, correspond to domestic tourism. Likewise, the UNWTO’s economists estimate that at the global level, domestic tourism represents:
* 73% of total overnights
* 74% of arrivals and 69% of overnights at hotels
* 89% of arrivals and 75% of overnights in other [non-hotel] accommodations.”
In contrast to international tourists, domestic tourists know the destination, its language, its customs, its laws, its climate, its cultural context. As a general rule, domestic tourists are more demanding, especially when it comes to the quality of products.
Out of the four main motivations of tourists, [discovery, encountering others, experiencing something unique, resting] the last two are certainly more prominent among domestic tourists. Local tourists also seek a very wide diversity of types of destinations and tourism activities, in other words, the range of product offerings should be as broad as possible and for a country like Nigeria, our size and diversity potentials are of immense advantage.
Under domestic tourism, visits are more frequent and there are more repeat stays, notably with family and land transport is predominantly used: 88% compared to 51% for international tourism.”
According to available data, Nigeria recorded a total 4,037,808 tourist arrivals in 2013, while US$ 649,468,486 forms their expenditure. There are several international initiatives that have highlighted the potential of tourism to contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction, as well as to environmental protection, cultural preservation, and job creation.
It is important to note that, a vibrant business environment is supported by a vibrant tourism community which thrives on the financial support of visitor spending and contributes to the quality of life through sporting events, festivals, carnivals, religious tourism, conference/business tourism, wildlife, eco-tourism, beach tourism/holiday resorts all of which we have in abundance. Regrettably, she noted that Nigerians have ‘panache’ for international vacation due to poor packaging of our local tourism industry for local consumption. However, tourism in Nigeria contributed so much to the GDP, but very little is attributed to it, hence the difficulties of government in recent past seeing tourism as a major contributor to the GDP.
In this regard, there is an urgent need to actively harness this industry’s economic potentials with a view to enhancing its contributions to GDP. As it is estimated that “we have a US$ 4 billion domestic tourist market. Similarly, the size of the Diaspora market is estimated at US $3 billion annually should we provide them with the right environment considering the volatility of oil revenues which is currently a major source of the nation’s revenue. “
Domestic tourism is one of the main focus of current efforts at NTDC which encourages Nigerians to celebrate our values, our tourist attractions and cultural heritage as the cornerstone for building a sustainable tourism industry that can attract investment. “Most importantly, the NTDC is reaching out to states in view of the 2013 Supreme Court Judgment that has ceded a critical aspect of the tourism industry to the states for standard and uniformity sake.Partnering the private sector in the sustainable development of tourism infrastructure and services which has culminated in signing MOU with business giants.Successfully bridging the gap between the public and private sector. Created awareness on domestic tourism i.e. show-casing our heritage/cultural festivals, tourist sites and attractions. Bridge the gap between the tour & travel operators and airlines which resulted in better synergy between the parties. She enumerated.
It was againt this backdrop she poited out that when she assumed office, she decided to focus more on domestic tourism in order to have full understanding and appreciation of our local tourism potentials first hand by embarking on tour of some of our known destinations and attractions; meeting with state officials [sometimes chief executives of the states I visited], traditional rulers, tourism administrators and operators with a view to understanding their challenges and jointly seeking solutions to them.
“So far, I have visited about [17] states and without doubt, the tour has really helped me understand some challenges that the sector is facing today.”
She however said that the major problem faced by the corporation today is that of budgetary allocation. Solving this will position the agency to do the following: “Proper training of the corporation staff. Regular collaboration with the private sector operators in forging new ideas for the sector. Effective marketing and promotion of Nigeria locally to boost domestic tourism. Collaborating with other government agencies; such as the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, National Park Service among others. Encouraging and assisting non-profit organisations operating within the travel and tourism industry as tourism promotion cannot be done alone by government and its agencies because there are specific areas of tourism development that requires certain skills and interests that are not within government.”
NTDC and government in general are aware that developing our local tourism industry for domestic consumption will not be an easy task as it is no longer a secret that more and more Nigerians that can afford it travel abroad every day. “Government can no longer fold its arms and continue to watch the daily capital flight that leaves our over 4,279 hotels and numerous restaurants dry sometimes. Nigeria must put in place mechanism through which benefits can be derived from all departures. The NTDC is coming up with a recommendation to government on how domestic tourism can benefit from this. We must develop domestic tourism, not just for paid travellers alone, but leisure infrastructure in our various communities for citizens who cannot afford to travel.” She said.
On the final note, she expressed optimism that tourism can help us achieve the Nigeria of our dreams, not only for the present but also for generations to come. She therefore appealled to big businesses and individuals to adopt tourist sites and develop them as part of their contributions to the development of domestic tourism in Nigeria.
