Nigeria’s domestic tourism is to rake N3.36 billion to the country’s GDP year end further brightening prospects for the larger economy, e-commerce company, Jumia Travel predicts.
The prediction is part of the 2018 Nigeria Hospitality Report by Jumia Travel which reviewed the contributions of the domestic tourism sector to the broader economy.
Omolara Adagunodo, Managing Director, Jumia Travel Nigeria, says number of international arrivals in Nigeria and employments generated are expected to grow by 1.5% and 3.4% respectively by end of year representing 1.8 million international arrivals and 3.4 million jobs.
The two main components of domestic travel: leisure and business travel both grew at 2.7% and 2.8%, with N1.98 billion and N1.92 billion contributions respectively to domestic earnings in 2017, Adagunodo says.
The domestic tourism accounted for 1.9% of total GDP as a direct contribution, and 5.1% as a total contribution to Nigeria’s GDP. In monetary terms, the sector contributed approximately N2.3 billion to the GDP as a direct contribution, and N6.2 billion as a total contribution to the GDP, according to the report.
Ikechi Uko, Founder, Akwaaba Travel Market and tourism expert commended Jumia Travel for the report saying “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.”
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 says urging sector stakeholders to support and rely on data.
“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”, according to Uko who sees insufficient flights as one of the challenges facing the sector.
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