Nigeria’s tourism industry, projected to generate $8.2 billion in revenue and create 2,600,000 new jobs by 2032, is now facing a critical threat as tourists increasingly choose other African destinations.
This alarming trend puts the country’s economic growth and employment prospects in jeopardy, raising urgent calls for strategic intervention to revive its appeal on the global tourism map.
According to independent.ng, the combination of security challenges, poor infrastructure, economic instability, nonchalant attitude to tourism, poor regulation, marketing and incompetence have further compounded the woes of Nigeria to play big in the sector.
Statistics obtained from the Africa Facts Zone, indicated that Nigeria recorded only 1.2 million international tourists in 2023, a sharp contrast to 2.01 million recorded in 2019, the pre-COVID-19 pandemic era, according to Worlddata, a statistics organisation.
Besides, the Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN) in its recent statistics said that Nigeria contributes less than three percent of tourists visiting Africa annually, despite its opportunities and arrays of tourism attractions and sites.
At present, Morocco is Africa’s leading travel destination, generating a record $11 billion in tourism revenue in 2024 and welcoming 17.4 million visitors within the same period.
According to the country’s Ministry of Tourism, this establishes its position as the continent’s top tourism hub, surpassing Egypt, which recorded 15.7 million arrivals within the same period.
The North African nation’s 2024 visitor numbers showed a 20 percent increase from 2023 and a 33 percent jump from its pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when it welcomed 13 million tourists.
Also, searches indicated that Nigeria has over 1,000 tourist destinations, including 33 museums, 65 national monuments out of which two were declared World Heritage Sites, namely, Sukur Cultural Landscape in Adamawa State and Osun Osogbo Groove in Osun State, yet foreign tourists hardly know about them or chose Nigeria as a destination.
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Just recently, one of the frequent fliers on international routes, observed that 99 percent of inbound and outbound passengers on Europe or American routes are Nigerians.
The frequent flier, who didn’t want his name in print, said that this is an indication that foreigners – tourists, visitors or investors have not chosen Nigeria as a destination despite the everyday foreign trips of President Bola Tinubu to attract foreign investors.
He said: “How many foreigners come to Nigeria? Most of the foreign airlines, including Air Peace on international routes, only airlift Nigerian citizens to and fro. Where are the tourists, visitors or investors?
“It’s unfortunate that despite the noise in the media, we are not yet at that level of recognition. Security is a challenge; government ineptitude is further killing tourism growth. Who are those at the helms of affairs? Who are the image launderers for the country? What is their experience in international marketing? We are far from it. It’s so sad.”
Also commenting on the poor tourist visit to Nigeria, Mr. Gbemi Akinboro, the Managing Director, Scribes Global Services, said that despite the positive projections, the country may not achieve the expected growth in coming years.
According to Akinboro, statistics provided by the Statista, a data and analytics company in its latest statistics, showed that in 2025, the tourism sector was projected to generate approximately $3.77 billion, with an anticipated annual growth rate of 10.6 percent, potentially reaching $5.64 billion by 2029, but warned that the current situation in the country may nullify this projection.
Akinboro, a travel expert, explained that many tourist sites in the country had suffered from poor road networks, unreliable transportation, and limited access to essential amenities, thereby hindering accessibility and visitor experience.
He also said that the recent resurgence of terrorism, kidnappings and criminal activities had created a negative perception about the country.
He expressed that this dastardly act was discouraging both domestic and international tourists, while the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the sector continued to nosedive.
The Scribe Global Service boss, however, said that in recent times, domestic tourism had witnessed a notable rise, with an increasing number of Nigerians exploring local destinations.
He emphasised this trend had spurred growth in the hospitality sector, particularly in urban centres like Lagos, where luxury hotels are adapting to cater to both high-end and budget-conscious travellers.
He added: “While regions like Calabar and Lagos have seen some investments, overall leisure tourism remains underdeveloped, limiting the country’s appeal to a broader tourist demographics.
“Also, inefficient regulatory frameworks and inadequate marketing strategies have negatively affected the growth and global competitiveness of Nigeria’s tourism sector, yet we are not taking this sector so seriously.”
Akinboro advised that in order to address the challenges, the government should partner with international organisations, ease visa acquisition for foreigners, improve on the present infrastructure and organisation and participate in cultural events.
Akinboro hopes that the recent announcement by the Federal Government to automate the short-stay visa approval process with the aim of streamlining travel procedures would increase the country’s appeal to international visitors.
He explained that all these would go a long way to promoting inbound tourism and increase the sector’s contributions to the economy if well-harnessed.
Besides, Amb. Ikechi Uko, travel expert, said that foreigners only travel to Nigeria for two reasons – tourism and business.
But regretted the absence of verifiable data to quantify the number of foreigners that visit the country for the two purposes.
Uko, however, said that poor marketing of the country’s tourist sites was negatively affecting its potential in the comity of nations.
He said: “Unfortunately, we don’t have much data in Nigeria to compare and juxtapose. It is when you have data that people can comment authoritatively. But Nigeria has a tourism problem because we don’t market ourselves to anywhere. The Ministry of Tourism, which was created, has been scrapped by the government.
“There are always tourists, visitors and investors coming into Nigeria, but not at the level at which we can compete. As at now, our strength is domestic tourism and Nigerians who live abroad do come home. We had Detty December in Lagos, which was the case of Nigerians living abroad, but we are not yet there.”
For Nigeria to properly showcase its potential, Uko canvassed the appointment of tourism experts in leadership positions, stressing that the country had not been privileged in the last 10 years to have people who could lead and run the sector.
Also, just recently, Mr. Karim Rabo said that less than three percent of tourists visiting Africa annually choose Nigeria as their tourism destination.
He declared that the figure was low compared to other African countries that usually record huge patronage of international tourists.
He attributed the low patronage to poor attitudes usually exhibited by Nigerian tour operators and travel agencies.
According to him, Nigerian tour operators and travel agencies were more interested in packaging Nigerian tourists wishing to travel abroad rather than packaging international tourists to Nigeria.
Rabo also agreed with Uko that there was a dearth of data about tourism consumption and market patterns in Nigeria from the federal and state governments.
“Nigerian tour operators and travel agents promote more outbound tourism than inbound which is not encouraging.
“We need to get it right by promoting more of domestic tourism assets/potential to the outside world than promoting outbound tourism,” he said.
But Mr. Bankole Bernard, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Finchglow Holdings Limited, in an interview with Daily Independent, debunked Rabo’s claim.
Bernard specifically said that selling local destinations required the cooperation of airlines and the government.
For instance, Bernard said airlines are to position themselves as the nation’s ambassadors to other destinations in order to woo foreigners into the country.
“Is Air Peace interested in bringing foreign travel agencies to come and see Nigeria? Or what benefit is that to them? This can only be done by the government in partnership with local investors or airlines, but, unfortunately, nobody is taking that initiative. How do you think that sector will grow?
“For those that are serious-minded, they know what to do. They are taking Nigerians out. And for every Nigerian that is going, they probably put an average of $1,000 as a budget. You will need to take up accommodation, there is transportation, shopping and others.
“That $1,000 has a value it will add to their bottom line in the economy. So, you are taking money from your economy into their own economy. So, the problem is with us.”
Attempts to get the accurate number of visitors to Nigeria in recent years through the borders from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) was not successful.
But a source close to the service told Daily Independent that the Federal Government through the NIS was making attempts to change the narrative by encouraging foreigners to visit the country.
For instance, the source said that the NIS recently launched e-visa, which gives priority to tourists, assuring that in the next one year, the number of tourists and visitors to Nigeria would grow.
