Nigerian tourism policies need to be strengthened – NATOP boss

Nkereuwem Onung has carved a niche for himself in the tourism and travel business in the country, besides being the president of Nigerian Tour Operators, NATOP which he has transformed from relative obscurity to international prominence, he is also the chairman of Remlords Car Hire and Tour Services.
In this interview at the recently concluded Accra Weizo in Ghana, Mr. Onung spoke on the challenges facing travel and tourism industry in Nigeria, the need for the country’s tourism policies to be strengthened, and why Nigeria needs to lead the way in making travel seamless in West African, among other issues.

Excerpts

What is your take on the issue of seamless travel in West Africa?

When we talk about seamless travel in West Africa, the truth about it is that it has worked in South Africa with the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA), now we are just seeing the East African platform, to each of those countries, Kenya is like a giant, but it has something to offer to those smaller countries, the same with South Africa, so if we do not rise up as a country to pilot and engineer the one for West Africa to work, is not going to work. What we are saying is this, that East Africa as a region has 160 million people, and Nigeria as a country has 180 million people. The issue here is that Nigeria has to work, that is why we are asking the stakeholders in this country to make tourism work. Look at the advantages of the linkages, what we would have gotten as a people is being lost. It is time we seize from being market to everybody, because right now Nigeria is market to everyone, even then as it is now with the foreign exchange troubles, less people will leave for this year summer, because of the effect of all these things happening in Nigeria.

What about the foreign airlines problems?

We are talking about the problems with the airlines, it has to be solved, is not necessary, we have issue of visa, it has to be solved, you heard what is said here about our airports. We are congratulating Ghana on their airport, we need to sit up so that Ghana does not become the hub, so that Nigerians will not start moving from Lagos to Accra before they fly out of the country. For me, let the stakeholders of the industry sit up and reverse all the things that have gone wrong because we are going backward as a nation. For us as a private sector, is time to sit up, because from what we heard here today, tourism is driven by private sector, there has to be collaborations.
Number two, we need to put economic factor to the fact that this is not just an adventure, it is business, there is an economics attached to it, there is GDP, what is the effect of every action today on tourism. Nigeria has not been in any travel expo in the last three years, that means nobody is promoting Nigeria. Yet we have issues, the Niger Delta problems and all that, so you cannot manage the image like this. We are actually on a backward trend. So tourism is one area I think that government should rise up and make it work. Tourism policies needs to be strengthened, I keep saying that people that are knowledgeable should be put in positions to run things, so that is what it is.

NANTA president keeps saying that Nigeria risks 300,000 jobs if the foreign airlines leave, will that also affect NATOP?

Yes, this is what happens, until Nigeria becomes a leisure destination, you are not going to feel the impact, it still affects NANTA because they are outbound, because they are buying tickets, they are going to lose, it will affect the outbound because less people are going to travel. I went to South Africa and they are complaining that by now Nigerians used to be everywhere there, but they cannot find them anywhere there, that means there is something happening. So is does not just affect NANTA it affects NATOP too. Even though they are not doing inbound, they are doing outbound, the outbound people going on tour are using the tickets, so the same thing that affects NANTA is affecting NATOP, so is the same thing.

What about domestic tourism?

So let Nigerians begin to travel around the country, that is what we are saying. That is why we need to have this balance, let us be fair to everyone in all. We do not need a country where things are heating up, we are heating up the polity, is not necessary, we do not need it, let the issue of rivalries, party versus party, be solved now because we have finished election. Let the country be ruled because we are still playing party politics, we have finished elections and Nigerians need peace with all our constituents, all the people that make up the country, we need peace. Whether we like it or not, we still need to congratulate Cross River state, because nobody has done better, there is no product here now which you can say is above carnival Calabar, so when they say the governor has won the tourism personality of the year for Nigeria and West Africa, he deserved it, that is for the state.

Collaboration between NANTA and NATOP?

We are supposed to sign the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU here, the MoU is ready and will be signed soon. You are talking about private sector, but if you have a private sector that does not represent the private sector, like the one we have right now, there is going to be a problem. So let’s start working now, if we get NATOP, NANTA together and probably get the hotel people, HOFA together, we begin from there, once the meeting has major stakeholders, we can go somewhere with it, let us carry their titles and their names, if we are talking about private sector, you cannot even imagine the amount of work the East Africans did, I have the RETOSA agreement, the stage by stage agreement, what they did in six years to put them together as RETOSA, now they are harmonising. The issue of classification of tourism assets, for example when you say Five Star Hotel, it has to be Five Star Hotel, You were members of the Balafon Award Committee, you heard when the issue came up why all the three best hotels in West Africa are Nigerian hotels, you know why the argument, because the issue of uniformity in hotel classification is not there, that is what we need. The argument was hot especially our Ghanian counterparts who said we cannot tell them that the top three hotels in West Africa are Nigerian hotels. Even at that, I have to go to Movenpick here in Ghana to ask them their problems, they are operating without their community, they said the can make their money without their community, even Labadi Hotel has a good product. So we cannot stay in one country and judge the hotels and products in another country. We need to drop our pride if we are going to do a West African seamless thing, you have to approach them from a point of collaboration and not a point where we want to dominate them, because if you do that, they will stay off from you. Like Carmen Nibigira who is coordinating the East African platform is not even from Kenya. But she is writing to the Kenyan tourism board and telling them to show her figures, that if this happens, that is going to happen, because this guys really have domestic tourism. Ours now is that Nigeria should not even lose money because before you do this thing, what is the statistics, and Nigeria cannot even do that. Now we held back $575 million belonging to the airline and 40 percent of that amount is lost by the reason of increase in your exchange rate and some of the airlines left and some say they are not leaving, instead they will now go to the GDS and adjust the figures, so a ticket of N300, 000 now sells for N600,000, and who is paying for it, Nigerians. Even if that is going to force people to travel only in Africa, they are still going to spend dollars outside Nigeria. My Europe cab partner, a French man came last year and stayed in Ibis Hotel, Ibis is N30,000 per night and he paid 180 dollars or 200 dollars, he came back this year and stayed in the same hotel which is still N30,000 but he paid less than $100, so you can see the effect, value for him, loss for us. If they ask you to pay $200 like they are offering us at Labadi Hotel, which used to be $150 for one night in a hotel, $200 is like N70,000 for one night in a hotel, which hotel is that, that means that the N35,000 Eko Hotel is giving us for Akwaaba is just a $100 as against their $400, $500, so is Eko Hotel going to ask us to pay $200 per night for $400. No we do not destroy our economy. When I went to South Africa, I had some partners I do accommodations for, I do travels for them. Am going to hang on even if it means reducing rate for them, so that I can earn money in foreign currency.

What is the solution?

The solution lies with the government. It is leadership, the president does not understand the business, so he should get people that understand the business and listen to them, we are talking about the economy, did the economy just fail by itself, it is shrinking from different ends, if the airlines are pulling out, is it not the economy that is shrinking, the economy is shrinking from everywhere, we keep talking, talking, when these airlines leaves, people will lose jobs. For withholding 40 percent of the foreign airline money, they are going to take it back from us as Nigerians. Am talking about the business am doing now, fuel has increased but I have not increased my fees, but am still doing it, Nigeria is declining, it needs to be saved.