• South Africa, Mauritius, Botswana top list
Travel and Tourism Development Index 2024 has revealed the top 10 tourist destinations in Africa and the Giant of Africa, Nigeria, is absent from the list.
According to the TTDI 2024, which also measures the factors enabling sustainable growth in the travel and tourism sector, South Africa topped the list, followed by Mauritius and Botswana in second and third places, respectively.
Others on the list are Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Namibia, Zambia, Ghana and Senegal.
According to the research, TTDI performance in sub-Saharan Africa has improved most significantly since 2019 (+2.1 per cent), with 16 of the 19 regional economies covered by the index seeing an increase in TTDI ratings.
Nigeria’s weak TTDI performance has raised concern among enthusiasts. Some industry participants believed that the country had what it takes to pull the country forward but suffered setbacks as a result of sheer negligence.
A CNN award-winning travel writer and author, Pelu Awofeso, said tourism has fared badly in Nigeria.
He said: “We had high hopes when President (Olusegun) Obasanjo introduced a stand-alone Ministry of Tourism during his administration, the prospects were bright and things started to take shape.
“The administration even succeeded in working with UNWTO to draw up a tourism master plan for Nigeria in the mid-2000s. But after his tenure, the momentum dropped. The worst period for tourism in Nigeria was during the President Buhari administration. He erased the Ministry of Tourism and attached it to the Information Ministry and it was eight years of nothingness.
“Even now under President Tinubu, when we have regained the Ministry of Tourism and another Ministry for Arts & Culture, there isn’t much difference in the outlook for the industry,” Awofeso said.
Awofeso said that Nigeria is a country very rich in culture, traditions, arts, monuments and historical sites that cannot run out from attracting people from all over the world but that it needs to be intentional.
Guinness World Record Culinary Strategist and Hospitality Industry expert, Gbolabo Adebakin, said that the hospitality industry is struggling to make extraordinary waves in Nigeria and beyond for obvious reasons.
“You find out that every other day you wake up just trying to ensure that the light in your restaurant is on. So, if that is the energy that you get every day in running your business, what time would you have to dream? That for me is the greatest challenge,” he said.
Adebakin emphasised that the government should see hospitality businesses as partners because the government cannot open restaurants.
“Imagine the government saying that they want to be the only ones opening restaurants across the entire country, it’s impossible. So, when they know that it’s impossible, they should respect the people who have taken it upon themselves to do it, because that’s their assignment, that’s their contribution to tourism. Hopefully, I hope we critically look into these things because if you don’t make hospitality businesses happy, you have no tourism.”
Aviation analyst and Director of Research at Zenith travels, Olumide Ohunayo, analysed how Nigeria’s weak passport also affects the tourism sector.
He explained that Nigeria needs to work on security and its economy so the tourism sector can prosper.
“The weakness of our passport affects the inbound and outbound tourism because when the economy is weak and there is no security and safety, you would debar people coming into your country, for outbound, people would always want to step out of the country, not as tourist, but more as migrants, and that results in our weakness.”
The Aviation analyst divulged that the government and stakeholders need to come together to promote tourism both at home and abroad.
“You can’t just change the national anthem or change the pledge and expect a turnover, well, it goes beyond that.”
