A travel expert and organiser of Akwaaba West Africa’s largest trade exhibition event, Ikechi Uko, has called on the Federal and State Governments to support private sector initiatives aimed at fostering domestic tourism in the country.

Speaking on the topic “Rethinking Tourism in Nigeria” at a breakfast meeting of the Nigerian South African Chamber of Commerce recently, Uko said the lack of government support of private sector efforts to drive domestic tourism had hampered the sector’s growth.

He stressed the need for operators to discontinue ethical practices and embrace intelligent approaches, and strategically plan for the future to rejuvenate Nigeria’s tourism industry.

He mentioned, “The positive impact created by projects such as Naija7Wonders, Nigeria Tourism Lovers, Goge Africa and Naija Explorers, which have been at the forefront of driving domestic tourism growth, with states like Cross River, Osun, Lagos, Akwa Ibom and Ekiti actively participating.

“A survey of the Top 10 domestic destinations includes those states with Akwa Ibom joining for the first time in 2022 as a result of Naija7Wonders and NATOP AGM. The reason Nigerians travel using data on passenger traffic from Nigeria over the past years.

The data, he said, was sourced from NCAA, NBS, NANTA and the top five travel agents in Nigeria, showed that VFR, religion, business, school, leisure, M.I.C.E, Medical and ‘JAPA ‘ were the major reasons for travels to the top destination of UK, USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Canada and India.

He added, “The potential of leveraging the global success of Nigerian artists in the music industry to enhance tourism. Nigerian music has become widely popular across African countries as it is the most streamed music in most African countries except in some South African countries and the government should seize the opportunity to promote the country as a tourist destination.

“Rema played at the Ballon D’or Awards, Burna Boy played at UEFA Cup finals. Davido played at World Cup Finals, Tems played at the NBA All Stars, and Tiwa Savage played at the Coronation of Kings Charles. These are powerful endorsements that can be parlayed into wonderful tourism products.”

The tourism expert emphasised the need for the government to ensure the safety of citizens and visitors, make the available infrastructure effective and efficient, and support Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions events capable of attracting tourists, especially from abroad.

He criticised the allocation of government funds to events that do not bring in any tourists either from abroad or Nigeria.