Positive outlook for Nigeria’s travel sector

The Nigerian travel and tourism industry is defined by activities involving the movement of people from one place to another. It has tangible and intangible elements. The tangible elements include transportation, accommodation and other components of the hospitality industry.
Major intangible elements relate to the purpose or motivation for becoming a tourist, such as rest, relaxation, the opportunity to meet new people and experience other cultures, or simply to do something different and have an adventure.
The Nigerian travel industry is driven by the legacy of its age-old travel destinations like the Ikogosi Spring, Olumo and Zuma rocks, Obudu Ranch – these represent destinations around which other economic activities are associated.
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These legacies have become major sources of income and job creation through the replication of businesses through hotel booking, tour guides, air flights and tour transportation, among others. The common mission of this sector is influenced by activities to make available and convenient logistics for moving human and natural resources from one location to another, whether local, domestic or international.
From the expensively decorated and branded airport waiting lounges to modest travel and tours offices on the roadside of Broad Street, the Nigeria travel and tourism industry is abuzz with growing activities.
One of such notable trends and pertinent activities is the creation of jobs. This has not gone unnoticed by travel and tourism monitoring agencies – that there are signs of positive impact of local repositioning of the Nigerian travel industry.
Along the nooks and crannies of the streets of Lagos, you can spot flippant advertisements of “Travels and Tours Agents Here” and other variations. This is an indication of the proliferation of retail travel consultancies as opportunities created by the changes in the industry.
Most of these brick and mortar businesses are without affiliation to recognised travel consultancy certifications and, therefore, unregulated. In 2014, the industry contributed $7,580 billion in GDP and 277 million jobs to the global economy.
During 2015, the industry’s contribution to global GDP is forecast to grow by 3.7 per cent and employment by 2.6 per cent. This demonstrates the sector’s enduring ability to generate economic growth and create jobs at a faster rate than the global economy, which is due to grow by 2.9 per cent in 2015.
The wake of 2014 saw a major disruption in the industry, including the consolidation of four of the largest travel consultancy agencies in Nigeria, to form a consortium TICO (Travel Investment Company Limited).
This consolidation was a confirmation of the fact that the Nigerian travel industry was waking to the growing trends of diversified revenue generation models of the airlines and affiliate consultancies in the country and that key stakeholders are responding proactively to these changes.
Commenting on the affiliate consultative trend in the country’s travel industry, Managing Director of Travel Investment Company Limited, Mrs. Irene Uti-Egbeogu, said: “We believe that one of the potentials of the industry to create jobs lies in the very nature of affiliate consultancy such as our TICO Affiliate Programme we fondly named as TAP. It typically involves empowering people with training to enable them deliver on travel and tour consultation to the mass.
“The future is promising, especially with Nigeria’s growing affluent mass population, which in turn means more spending and more opportunities in retail services. This consortium was set up to offer much more than just commission earning to its members, but works towards enhancing efficiency in operations of its members, which would increase overall profitability, which will in turn create opportunities to re-invest in their businesses in areas covering technology, education and training.”
Forecasts by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) shows that the outlook for travel and tourism in Nigeria is positive, given that the consumer spending is bound to increase as well as boosted profitability of the travel industry with the increased investment by foreign investors and the creation of jobs by the industry’s development.
Having grown for the fifth consecutive year in 2014, the Travel and Tourism industry has continued to up its contribution to the real GDP of Nigeria with an average 1.9 per cent contribution rate. More industry developments have augured what with the re-positioning of the Nigerian travel industry and with increased foreign direct investment through the industry.
A good sign of this would be the revealing trend of growing tourism/travel ecommerce business interests under the TICO consortium to meet even more demand for tourism and travel consultation services.
According to President & CEO WTTC, David Scowsill, “at a time of global economic challenges, Travel & Tourism continues to grow faster than the global economy, and is an enduring source of job creation and a driver of growth for every region in the world.”
Wole Shadare