Many developing countries have managed to increase their participation in the global economy through the development of tourism. Tourism development is increasingly viewed as an important tool in promoting economic growth, alleviating poverty, job creation, as well as contributing to national development goals.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that tourism can play a significant role in balanced sustainable development, and that it can be effectively harnessed to generate net benefits for the poor [UNWTO,2002]. Tourism is a principal export for 83% of developing countries, and it is the most significant source of foreign exchange after petroleum.
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%.
What is Domestic Tourism?
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.
Historically speaking, it is in fact 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.
It was for all the above reasons that when I assumed office, I decided to focus more on domestic tourism.
In order to have full understanding and appreciation of our local tourism potentials first hand, I embarked 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.
Make no mistake, I was aware even before I became the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation [NTDC] that Nigerians have ‘panache’ for international vacation due to poor packaging of our local tourism industry for local consumption.
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.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO] emphasizes poverty reduction as one of its primary themes for tourism development, and its Sustainable Tourism–Eliminating Poverty [ST-EP] initiative focuses on aligning the goals of sustainable tourism with activities that specifically alleviate poverty.
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.
It is however 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.
National Tourism Policy
The policy thrust is to develop sustainable tourism by capitalizing on heritage diversity as the basis for promoting domestic and international tourism. This is aimed at competitive sustainable tourism development within the confines of the world tourism market and open up Nigeria as a major tourist destination in Africa through the development of international tourism and promotion of domestic tourism.
Nigeria’s Tourism Potentials
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.
It is, therefore, estimated that, we have a US$ 4billion domestic tourist market. Similarly, the size of the Diaspora market is estimated at US $3billion 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.
There is an urgent need to actively harness this industry’s economic potentials with a view to enhancing its contributions to GDP.
Challenges
A critical evaluation of the evolution and development of tourism in Nigeria indicates that the country’s tourism industry faces socio-economic problems and structural deficiencies which reduce the industry’s efficacy as a tool for local, regional and national sustainable development.
In order to address these challenges, there is need to have good access roads to the various tourist destinations
– Review the Land Use Act to enable private sector access land for development of tourist sites.
– Corporate and multinational organization should adopt tourist sites for development.
– Resolve multiple taxation for tourism operators.
– Establish a Tourism Development Fund [TDF].
– Increased funding from the government
– Need to implement the 2007 Tourism Master Plan.
– Improve travel security as a necessary condition for growing both domestic and international tourist traffic in Nigeria.
Our Efforts and Achievements
One of the main focuses of our current efforts at NTDC is on domestic tourism 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.
– Bridged the gap between the tour & travel operators and airlines which resulted in better synergy between the parties.
– Still keeping international profile at some major international travel fairs so that when we are fully ready, Nigeria will not be new to the market through attendance of World Travel Market [WTM], London, ITB Berlin, WTM Cape Town South Africa through which contacts and enquiries about tourism potentials for investment in Nigeria are being made.
Way forward
There is no doubt; 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.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen; the 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.
Tourism can help us achieve the Nigeria of our dreams, not only for the present but also for generations to come. Therefore, I am appealing 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.
Thank you for your attention.