Akwa Ibom State played host to the 2021 Annual General Meeting of Nigeria Association of Tour Operators, NATOP with the theme “Restarting Tourism in Nigeria. The event which was held at Ibom Icon Hotel & Golf Resort started off with the National President of NATOP Hajiya Bilkisu Abdul highlighting the problems caused by Covid-19.
According to her, “the pandemic has become the worst thing that has happened to tourism in Nigeria. It totally wiped out most of our businesses. Without movement there is no tour operations.
Our members suffered from one lockdown to another. Domestic tourism started to come back to Life towards the end of last year. I am glad to note that Akwa Ibom State became one of the star destinations for Tour Operators. They came for the Christmas Village events in December and observed that it was a great success. They found your state rich in attractions.”
On his part, Akwa Ibom Commissioner of Tourism and Culture, Hon. Orman Esin also highlighted the tourism offerings of the state, “Akwa Ibom the real deal , we have the options for all types of Tourism in Nigeria. We have the biggest hotel property in West Africa, consistent growth over the years.”
The Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, who was represented by the Secretary of the State Government, Emmanuel Ekuwem, during his welcome address also buttresed the tourism aspects of the state, which included the residence of Mary Slessor, the Blue River, the longest coastline in Nigeria while also pointing out the culinary part of it with the mention of Akwa Ibom boasting of over 17 different soups.
Akwa Ibom state born businessman, Mr. Akanimo Udofia during his key-note address, reiterated the call for Nigeria to make use of her tourism potentials, siting the fact that despite the numerous tourism attractions in the country, a few travel to Nigeria for tourism purpose.
According to him, many countries that are not blessed with natural resources had thrived and prospered through tourism, while pointing to Thailand been the fourth highest earner of tourism in the world. He stated “Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is the 19th most visited country in the world with as much as 15 million people visiting yearly.
Most of tourism in Saudi Arabia largely involves religious pilgrimage and it generates $12 billion per year. Now remember that Saudi Arabia ranks as the second largest proven petroleum reserves in the world and the source of most of its revenue, yet it pays a lot of attention to other sectors, including tourism, which is less than two per cent. “I believe that irrespective of this small slice of the pie of their total revenue, we can all agree that $12 billion revenue from tourism on a yearly basis is still a significant amount of money.”
Lagos State was also represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture, Princess Adedoyin Ajayi. She thanked Akwa Ibom for their part in promoting local tourism. She further made mention of the famous Fisherman Soup which was making waves during the AGM.
Also, former Minister of Tourism in Ghana, Mrs Catherine Afeku, in her speech urged Akwa Ibom to utilize the opportunity of the Bridge of No Return to welcome back descendants of Nigeria lost to the Atlantic Slave Trade, similar to what Ghana did with the Year of Return. According to her “the Uyo experience should be very similar to that of the Ghanaian one, in the sense that, all the dungeons had doors that had written on them the Door of No Return, basically telling our people who were being taken away at that time, that it was their last door to walk through unto boats on the seas to unknown lands.
“In the same vein you have the Bridge of No Return where your long-lost relatives crossed to go to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.” “Use this bridge to welcome them home, just like we did in Ghana, not as tourists, not as visitors but as relatives who were long gone and returning and they are many. That was the turning point in the narrative. We recorded close to a million people of African descent who came home, the emphasis is on home.”
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Ifeoma Anyanwutaku. Mohammed urged NATOP to work towards restoring the damaged tourism reputation of the country and urged them to increase international partnerships while adopting international best practices for networking.
Ambassador Ikechi Uko, the Organiser, Akwaaba African Travel Market, in his presentation, mentioned leisure, religion, visiting friends and relatives, trade and business as some of the major drivers of international outbound travel and tourism in the country.
According to him, at least 559,430 passengers travelled out of Nigeria in 2019 to various countries and 29 per cent of these travellers went to Dubai, while others travelled to London, Jeddah, Guangzhou, Medina, Johannesburg, New York, Istanbul, Addis-Ababa, Houston, Delhi, Nairobi, Beirut, Toronto and Abu Dhabi.
Speaking further, Ambassador Uko said the percentage of travels by region indicated that Middle East attracted 43 per cent, Europe; 27 per cent, Africa; 10.2 per cent, Americas; 10 per cent, while Asia attracted 9 per cent in the year under review, adding that 60 per cent of the total travellers were for leisure/shopping.
Other goodwill messages were received from Chairman, NATOP Board of Trustees and Acting President of FTAN, Nkeruwem Onung, the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), and National Council of Arts and Culture (NCAC). The AGM ended with a culinary exhibition which included a 4 feet long ‘akpanata’ fish (Barracuda) along with 17 types of soups and a city tour of the state.
