Local tourism in Nigeria forecasted to get N3.6bn boost
The report provides insight into two main components of domestic travel: leisure and business travel, which has both seen a growth of 2.7% and 2.8% – 1.98 billion and 1.92 billion contributions respectively to domestic earnings in 2017. It provides holistic insight into the industry which accounts for 1.9% of the total GDP as a direct contribution, and 5.1% as a total contribution. In monetary terms, the sector contributed approximately N2.3bn to the GDP as a direct contribution and N6.2bn as a total contribution.
Tourism expert and founder of Akwaaba Travel Market, Ikechi Uko said: "The data and figures featured in the report can massively expand the footprint of the Nigeria travel industry and take it to the next level."
While announcing that Nigeria will soon subscribe to the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), which is the internationally recognised standard statistical framework for the economic measurement of tourism, Uko urged stakeholders within the sector to support and rely on data such as that of the 2018 Nigeria Hospitality Report.
Uko also commented on one of the challenges plaguing the sector, as identified in the report, such as insufficient flights, and said: "The number of flight pairs in Nigeria is very low. Lagos and Abuja are already saturated because almost all airlines want to fly there. As such, we need more flights to cut across the country because the travel industry cannot grow without a functional air transport network."
