These are numbers to inspire anyone, especially if you’re Nigerian: the tourism and travel industry in Nigeria contributed 4.8% (N1.7bn/ USD 5.5m) to the country’s GDP in 2016 and was responsible for 1.6% of total employment (roughly 661,000 jobs) in the same year.
There’s more: the country earned N88.2bn (USD 2.8m) from international visitors, while domestic travel spending grew to N2.688bn. Leisure seekers spent more than business travellers by 54%-46%. Surprisingly, Nigerians spent more during their travels than foreign visitors did (97%-3%).
These and more were revealed at the presentation of the 2017 Hospitality Report by Jumia Travel Nigeria, the online hotels booking platform; presented by the company’s Managing Director Kushal Dutta, the report covers activities and transactions in hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, airlines and other related ventures supported by tourist traffic.
Dutta re-affirms that Lagos, the former Nigerian capital remains the go-to city for tourists and business travellers. “Domestic travellers have increased and we have earned more revenues from Nigerians travelling in Nigeria,” he says while explaining the data in the presence of journalists and stakeholders.
According to the report, Obudu Mountain Resort tops the list of local destinations visitors to the Jumia Travel site searched for, followed by Oke Idanre Hill in Ondo State; Coconut Beach in Badagry, Lagos, Kainji National Lake Park in Niger State, and Falgore Game Reserve in Kano (in that order).
Others most searched cities include: Owerri, Benin-city, Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt and Enugu.
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Dutta also believes that the government in Nigeria needs to introduce a policy that ensures different hotel tariffs for resident and foreign customers, as happens in most other successful travel destinations. “It is unfair for people who earn comparably much less income to pay the same room rates for hotel accommodation.”
Pricing is a major consideration for Nigerians when they search to book hotels, regardless of what facilities the property offers or doesn’t. According to the report, 50% of customers prefer to stay in three-star hotels and 26% choose their hotels based on the fact that the prices includes complimentary breakfast, compared with swimming pools (25%), Wi-Fi (24%), Air-conditioner (12%) and Gym (9%).
In a preface to the report, Jumia Travel CEO Paul Midy notes that though the “potentials of tourism in the country are yet to be fully developed”, his company is committed to using “the internet to grow the sector and change peoples lives”.
The insecurity issues arising from attacks by Boko Haram in the North-Eastern region put a dent on tourism receipts; but with the progress being made by the Nigerian armed forces, the prospects are likely to improve in the current year.
In the year under review,
Hospitality consultant Bruce Prins believes that there are more hotels locally than there is demand for them, so customers are exploiting that to their advantage. “Because travelling out of Nigeria or even around Nigeria is now extremely expensive or cumbersome, elite, middle-class, and corporate customers are now looking more locally for quality and suitable accommodation,” he says in an interview for the report.
In the current year and the near future, he foresees an increase in demand for more recreational facilities and services and a round-the-clock hotel bookings system. “Social media is, and will be even more so, the most powerful marketing tool,” he argues.
Regardless of the current recession, however, Dutta believes stakeholders are in for a good deal in 2017. “If you have the right product, if you have the right price, people will find you,” he says.
