Nigerian tourism: Goldmine waiting to be tapped
BY ORJI ONYEKWERE
The just celebrated World Tourism Day, 2023, highlighted the need for more and better-targeted investments for people, for planet and for prosperity. Now is the time for new and innovative solutions, not just traditional investments that promote and underpin economic growth and productivity.
Tourism is a major source of employment because of its labour-intensive nature and the significant multiplier effect on employment in related sectors. It is estimated that one job in the core tourism sector creates about one-and-a-half additional or indirect jobs in the tourism-related economy. Overall tourism accounts for one in ten jobs worldwide.
For instance, tourism earnings from international arrivals in Kenya from 2005-2022 amounted to 1.8 billion US dollars. Tourism is a major source of Rwanda’s foreign exchange earnings and tends to generate a higher proportion of formal sectors than other sectors. Official data showed that Rwanda’s tourism earnings increased to 445million US dollars in 2022.
Back home in Nigeria, the country generates around $265.00m in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 0.056 percent of its gross domestic product. The tourism industry contributes 2 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, (GDP), but experts say its business volume and potential if properly harnessed can surpass revenues from oil and gas. These tourist sites have the capacity to sustain certain states in Nigeria. For instance, Cross River state was estimated to make N1.7 billion and attracted nearly two million tourists in 2017 from carnivals and festivals only.
Research has shown that Nigeria can generate over $20billion dollars from tourism if the landscape and numerous tourist attractions are developed. The growth of tourism in Nigeria will have a multiplier effect to equally boost the hospitality industry, aviation sector and generate more foreign exchange.
There are a good number of tourist sites in Nigeria. They include: Yankari Game Reserve (Bauchi state), Surame Cultural Landscape (Sokoto state), Queen Amina Walls, (Kaduna State), Sukur Landscape (Adamawa State), Obudu Mountain Resort, Agbokim Waterfall, Tinapa Business Resort, Alom Ikom Monoliths (Cross River state), Ibeno Beach (Akwa Ibom state) Lekki Conservation Centre, Oniru Beach, Tarkwa Bay Beach, Elegushi Beach, Badagry Coconut Beach, Eleko Beach, New Afrika Shrine, New World Africana, Nike Art Gallery (Lagos State), Awhum Waterfall, Ngwo Pine Forest, Ogbunike Caves (Anambra state), Shiroro Water Fall (Niger State), Oke-Idanre Hills (Ondo state), Osun Osogbo Grove (Osun State), Gashaki-Gumpti National Park (Taraba state) Arochukwu Long Juju Slave Route (Abia State), Abuja Art village, Cross Rock (FCT, Abuja) and many others.
However, the industry especially in the north east has witnessed low patronage because of persistent terror attacks. In other words, tourists are shunning tourist destinations such as the famous Argungu Fishing Festival, the Yankari Games Reserve, the Mambila Plateau, Othman Dan Fodio Tomb and the palace of the Emir of Kano, among others. Others are Kainji Lake National Park, Gashaka Gumti, Okomu, Chad basin, Kamuku and others.
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The tourist sites and events that still attract patronage are mostly in the southern part of the country. Like the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State, Osun Oshogbo Festival, Eyo Festival in Lagos, the Ogbunike cave in Anambra state, and the various New Yam festivals among many others.
One of the biggest games reserve in the country, the Yankari Game Reserve, boasts of a rich collection of wildlife in Nigeria such as lions, buffalos, hippos, roan, wildebeest and a hundred species of mammals as well as 350 species of birds.
It hosts the largest elephant population in Nigeria, and, perhaps, West Africa. The resort has about 108 guest rooms, 31 chalets, corporate villa and presidential apartments, while the conference room can sit 100 people.
Located 150 kilometers from Bauchi, the capital of the North-Eastern state of Bauchi, the resort is also affected by the Boko Haram violence. Visitors’ arrival has dropped considerably.
Adamawa is one of the three states badly affected by Boko Haram insurgency that has claimed the lives of over 10,000 Nigerians and displaced over two million others.
Located atop the plains of the Mandara Mountains in Madagali near the Cameronian borders, Sukur consists a palace, villages, and the remains of an iron industry accessed by natural stone paved footpaths that ascend the hills. It was designated a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1999. It is supposed to be a jewel of Nigeria’s tourism industry but Boko Haram attacks in Madagali and other Adamawa LGAs between 2014 and 2015 changed the story for Sukur.
Boko Haram overran Madagali LGA, Michika and other Adamawa towns on September 17, 2014 killing scores and injuring others. Precisely, the terrorists had on September 24, 2014, attacked several quarters in the Sukur valleys. But by December of the same year, dozens of terrorists successfully entered the epicenter of the Sukur hilltop settlement, shot residents, stole food stuffs, livestock and burnt not less than 73 houses.
In all, Nigerian is losing millions of foreign exchange earnings due to the country’s inability to harness her tourism potentials because of security issues and the inability of various states to properly tap into their natural endowments to generate money. The tourism potentials in some states like Lagos, Bauchi and Cross River among many others, if well harnessed; can sustained these states without falling back to federal allocation for sustenance.
