It’s no secret that high cost of tickets and foreign exchange is making Nigerians look inward for leisure and travel. If still in doubt, Jumia Travel Nigerian Hospitality Report 2017 put paid to all that with figures and statistics to match. OMOLOLA ITAYEMI Writes about figures and trends forging a new frontier in travel.
On 30 Jan at Four Points by Sheraton, Oniru, Lagos, the Nigerian hospitality report 2017 which has officially been launched by Jumia Travel, has shown amongst other indices that the country generated 97% of its tourism revenue from domestic travel in 2016 while foreign travel accounted for 3%.
As the hall of travel and tourism industry stakeholders listened and overviewed the content of this years report, there was no doubt this might be some of the missing link the industry needs to perform at optimum level.
One cannot over emphasise the need for accurate data for the industry. How can we prepare our budgets and ascertain what infrastructure to be maintained or refurbished if we don’t have accurate data. One can only wish this will apply across board with all relevant parastatals and authorised bodies not left to private sector as it’s done here
Paul Midy, MD Jumia Travel understands this role of such well researched reports especially now when the price of crude oil, our country’s main export is abysmally low.
“As Africa’s giant, Nigeria’s economy, just like most in the continent is burgeoning and promising despite the recent oil crisis and economic slowdown. We are determined to support the economy through our platform by attracting both domestic and foreign tourists to discover the country’s new and exciting tourist destinations. The potentials of tourism in the country are yet to be fully developed; to this course we’re committed to use the internet to grow the sector, and change people’s lives.”
Kushal Dutta, MD of Jumia Travel Nigeria mentioned that despite the security challenges in the country and the fall in dollar exchange rate, a lot of Nigerians preferred to travel within the country to spend their holidays at exciting tourist destinations. “This is a good sign that we need to encourage a lot more travels within the country by designing attractive holiday packages that will be exciting enough for Nigerians to want to spend money on tourism within the country. As a company, we are interested in collaborating to encourage more Nigerians to enjoy their holidays within Nigeria”, he added.
The 2016 report, which is the 2nd edition, captured the development, impediments, and impact of technology on the country’s travel industry between January and December 2016.
“We have captured relevant data on the percentage of online booking over offline; most used tool for hotel searches; most preferred payment method; average price of hotels from highest to lowest demand in cities; percentage of hotel bookings by star ratings, as well as percentage of hotel bookings by amenities,” Dutta said.
Similarly, Mr. Bruce Prins, a renowned hospitality consultant in Nigeria who was featured in the published report stated that the hospitality industry in 2016 suffered extreme pressure as a result of a reduction in foreign visitors and local corporate expenditure. The price war between many hotels undermined the hospitality industry’s perceived value, and also created a lot of degradation in so far as the quality on offer is concerned. Reduced services, and ill-maintained facilities contributed to the latter due to the price wars.
“In 2017, there will be more recreational facilities, and services will be required; better reservation systems that are 24 hour, and easy to action will be the deal-breaker. Ease or disease of air travel will affect everything; renovation and maintenance will make a hotel, and the lack thereof will break a hotel; and social media is, and will be even more so the most powerful marketing tool,” Prins added.
The 2017 report essentially provided data and insight on the Nigerian travel industry viz a viz the local sector with its counterparts on the global map.
One thing is glaring, even if Nigeria continues to be seen as a location where people come first for business travel before leisure, domestic travel is the next game changer with loads of local tour companies such as Travel Next Door, Unravelling Nigeria, Social Perfect etc specialising in inbound tourism springing up.
Jumia Travel with 9,000 hotels under its belt continues to feed us with data such as one out of 25 people employed is in the hospitality sector and sector related to it. Most of the business travel is to big cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. Also Lagos is the most searched location with Abuja second on its portal. Three frequent amenities desired by Hotel searches are Internet, swimming pool and breakfast. Also the use of gym and air conditioners are common searches too.
Although accounted for 4.8% of the country’s GDP, the hospitality industry still has more to offer provided the security challenges facing the country can be quenched. This will attract a lot of foreign investors, and tourists to the country.
The industry’s contribution to total employment in the country stood at 1.6% in 2016, which is approximately 661,000 jobs. This included employment by hotels, travel agents, airlines, and other passenger transportation services (excluding commuter services). It also included, for example, the activities of the restaurant, and leisure industries directly supported by tourists.
Lagos is the main destination in Nigeria, well-known as a business destination. 2016 witnessed a sharp decline in economic activities due to the fall in oil prices and inflation. Lagos is also the African hub for Music, Cinema (Nollywood) and new technologies.
Some of the top tourist destinations in the country include Obudu Mountain Resort in Calabar; Oke Idanre Hill in Ondo State; Coconut Beach in Badagry Lagos, Kainji National Lake Park in Niger State, and Falgore Game Reserve in Kano.
Many tourism events were held in Lagos in 2016, such as the African Travel & Tourism Conference (Akwaaba); and the Nigeria Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference which are at the forefront of attracting international tourists into the country through a convergence of tourism experts from across the continent.
Domestic travel spending grew to NGN 2,688 bn, a 4.9% increase in 2016 over 3.2% recorded in 2015.
In 2016, there were 61 new hotels with 10,222 rooms in total. In the whole of Africa, Lagos, the largest city on the continent, continues to lead the top 10 by number of planned rooms, with over 4,000 planned rooms.
Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, has the second highest number of planned rooms in the African pipeline, and together with Lagos accounts for 32 per cent of the rooms in the top 10. Some of the top 10 brands by number of hotels and rooms expanded include Radisson Blu, Hilton, Sheraton, Ibis, and Four Points by Sheraton.
With e-tourism, Nigeria is among the leading countries with the highest smartphone penetration in Africa. In 2016, there were 15.5 million smartphone users in Nigeria.
The success of e-commerce in the country can also be a consequent of the increase in the number of smartphone users, which is forecast to reach 18 million users in 2017.
Internet penetration stood at 52% (97, 210,000) of the country’s population (186,879,760) as at June 2016.
