Hassan Zakari is the Chief Executive Officer, Leisure Afrique Limited, a destination management company. In this interview with SIMON EJEMBI, he speaks on the prospects and challenges of leisure tourism in Nigerians, among other issues.
Attitude of Nigerians towards vacations
Do I say poor or bad now? Nigerians don't have the vacation attitude in them. The average Nigerian works 24/7; he doesn't want to take a break. Some people don't want to leave their seat (office) because they are probably doing some dirty deals there; some, even if they collect their leave allowance or money for vacation, prefer to use it for something else. So, that vacation attitude is very poor among Nigerians. Some level of middle class is coming up, but we are still not there.
Reason for poor attitude towards taking a holiday
It is just due to the mind-set of the average Nigerian. If you talk of people from these other countries where tourism is booming – South Africa, Kenya, etc. – they have respect for what we call vacation. But for us here, because our tourism industry is not working well, many people don't know the importance of vacation.
It also has to do with value orientation. I will give you an example: the average Nigerian goes out and works all day. He hardly takes a meal; at most, he would probably stop somewhere and buy snacks and a soft drink and then he is on the move again. So, it's also a cultural thing; we don't have the culture of vacation.
Effects of shunning vacations
Of course it has an effect on people; health-wise, psychologically, in every way. You see people working, working and working without taking time off, that is why people are dying in their 40s today.
Now, if you go for a vacation, take one week and go and rest somewhere to rejuvenate yourself and come back, you will know that you are different from what you used to be. So, (not going on vacation) is not good health-wise, psychologically and socially.
The only thing many people consider as rest in Nigeria is going out to drink, which is also not very good for the health.
Again, if you look at our society, you will find that people with jobs are poorly paid. Their take-home pay can hardly take them home and before the end of the month, they have finished it.
But this situation is not entirely different from some other countries (where people frequently go for vacation). Like I said earlier, it is attitudinal.
Investment opportunities
There are many investment opportunities in the tourism sector. One of the available opportunities is what we call Bed and Breakfast. What I mean by that is accommodation. For example, if you own a three-bedroom apartment and, probably, you are only using one room, yet you are paying rent for that house, you can decide to operate a Bed and Breakfast and put the two rooms up for rent. That is for visitors and tourists in the country. Unfortunately, tourists don't troop here for so many reasons; security and the fact that the tourism industry is not developed. The products are not there. We have the attraction but they are not developed.
Therefore, we don't have leisure tourism here. About 98 per cent of the white guys you see around come here for business. And the business travellers stay in the choice hotels and go about with security personnel and everything. Therefore, the business traveller will not come and stay in your B&B. So even if you ask someone to come and invest in a B&B, it may not be able to survive beyond a few months because of lack of patronage. It pains me to talk about this because if you look at the way it works in other places, it does not work here like that.
Again, if the tourism industry were to be thriving, young people that are unemployed can be tourist guides. For instance, if you grew up in your community, let's say Otukpo (Benue State) for example, you can decide to be a tourist guide there because you know everything about the place.
If you go into that, you will be surprised to find that in a day, a tour guide can make up to $200. That is N30, 000. Because, if he takes a group on a tour, that is $50. In 30 minutes to one hour he is through with that group and comes back to take another group again. And don't forget members of the groups he is taking on all these tours will give him tips. So, that is another area where young people can invest.
Importance of a licence
Elsewhere, you need a licence to be a tourist guide because the tourism boards are supposed to licence all tourist guides. This is because some people may come and pose as tourist guides but they are robbers. What if they go and rob the tourists? Tourist guides need to be licenced because some are also quacks; they know nothing. They just collect money from people without offering value. Therefore, for you to acquire the licence, you have to go through tourism school to learn how to be a good tourist guide so that people can get value for their money.
Other challenges
When you invest in the tourism industry, it may take forever before you recoup your money. That is why a lot of people don't want to put their money there. There are a lot of things that are not working well in that industry. Have you ever seen an advert about Nigeria on any of the foreign TV networks – maybe CNN or any other one?
Secondly, our image is bad as well; because of Boko Haram and other security challenges such as 419.
Because of these challenges, people are sceptical about Nigeria and so they don't come. The ones you see in the country only come to Nigeria to make money, after which they will go away.
That is why all the hotels in Nigeria are expensive because they are all targeting business travellers. We do not have leisure travel hotels. For example, Suku in Adamawa State is a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, but there is no hotel close to it. Therefore, if you have tourists that come to Suku, to get a good hotel they must either sleep in Yola or Jalingo to get a good hotel and these are about five to six hours to Suku on a bad road. Therefore, how does the tourism attraction at Suku survive? It can't. Now, if you go and put a hotel near Suku because there is no hotel there, how does it survive?
Another example is the Yankari Games Reserves in Bauchi State. The games reserve has been refurbished by the state government, but if you go there it is like a ghost town. The patronage is very poor because it is a leisure destination. Only a few people summon the courage to go there because of the security situation there, among other things.
Future prospects
These things will only change if we have responsible government that has the passion and vision for tourism. You saw what they did in Calabar, Cross River State when former governor, Donald Duke, had the vision and passion for tourism. Almost every day people now talk about Calabar and Obudu because of what Duke did. I do not see any improvement except God brings a God-fearing and passionate leader that has a passion for tourism and things change. Because if we continue the way we are, we are not going anywhere.
