As one of the top four most visited cities in Africa and with its potential, Lagos has been labelled by some practitioners or public/economic analysts as the next big destination on the continent.
Not minding the shortages of basic infrastructure to compete with the likes of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Cairo and even Nairobi, many tourism apostles have already labelled our dirty, chaotic, and disorganised city as an emerging destination.
To be candid, I have taken an audit of Lagos as a city and the state’s tourism readiness and have concluded that the journey has not even started, much more to say what the city or the state must sell. Presently, Lagos as a destination is not competitive among the top ten city destinations on the continent despite a well catalogued potential of this city.
To be honest, there is nothing special or spectacular about this city aside from its business potential or as a gateway to Nigeria as a major business destination in Africa. Just a note of warning, there is a significant difference between a business destination and a leisure destination.
A business destination is a location/city/state/country where people go for its business vibrancy, because of the possibility of high return on investment; and or go there for work because employees may experience unique and exceptional feelings. Whilst leisure destinations are the places to which people travel to take part in leisure/tourism activities.
Destinations are built on the back of volume or number of visitors. To assume destination status, infrastructure, product structure and profile are developed, potential markets are identified, and the right marketing strategies and promotions are deployed for a successful and sustained industry over a period.
In the case of Lagos, the journey of instituting the industry started properly under the tenure of Akinwumi Ambode, between 29 May 2015 – 29 May 2019. At the twilight of his regime, he commissioned Ernst & Young to develop a Tourism Master Plan for the state, not minding the incompetence of the firm in the field, which was a welcome development.
Despite the problematic job done which was later clean-up by Prof. Babalola Wasiu, a professor of Hotel and Tourism Management and Lucky Onoriode George, a media-marketing and public relations specialist on behalf of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria [FTAN], Lagos State Chapter that picked holes and incompatibility or suitability in some major aspects of the master plan.
Just to mention, the clean-up was contracted out to the tourism federation, Lagos State Chapter at a figure not known till today and was done pro bono by the duo apart from accommodation and feeding covering the period of the clean-up.
Without a doubt and typical of every master plan, there are laid down fundamentals that must be put in place for a plan to work. Going through the job done by myself and Prof. Wasiu, apart from the demarcation of the state into five divisions [IBILE] and Tourism Desks in all the local governments/Area Development Councils, not much have been done.
To succinctly put it, the implementation of the Tourism Master Plan has not started. As also identified by the plan, without a deliberate inclusive development, the idea that Lagos will be one of the top ten major destinations on the continent will only be mere wishful thinking.
Just like the entire country, the infrastructural deficit is incredibly shameful, and the gap is not going to close anytime soon. Aside from this, product development, marketing and promotion are significantly very critical and require a tourism structure, capacity, and funding. Gladly, the master plan makes recommendation for the establishment of the Lagos State Tourism Board, an agency that would be saddled with the development, marketing, and promotion of the state as a destination. [I can share the copy of the master plan with whoever needs it].
As we discovered during the clean-up/review of the job done by Ernst & Young, the State House of Assembly had already passed the Lagos State Tourism Agency Law 2018 to develop tourism investment, which aims to enhance revenue generation. That law is yet to be implemented and a call was again made by the law makers as recently as the 2022 World Tourism Day Celebrations on September 27.
While the infrastructure development is ongoing in some parts of the state, there is no sign of the government instituting the tourism agency that will be so critical to the above. However, some analysts are of the view that the State Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is only holding back because it is still a policy maker and implementer, and to let go will need the governor’s immediate intervention.
Since the launch of the Master Plan in July of 2021, the various events and programmes that the state have been undertaking yields so much to the commissioner, advisers and staff of the ministry that they are not encouraged to push for the tourism agency establishment.
Sadly, the ministry current set up lacks the capacity, structure, and know-how of how a state like Lagos can be marketed and promoted as aspired by the government- to be one of Africa’s top five hubs; knowing fully that Nigeria itself is a hold-back due to many factors.
Apart from just being a money-spinning agency as envisaged by the law makers, the body will be able to register, grade, monitor and regulate tourism activities in the state. As of today, the tourism industry, especially the hospitality sub-sector [the lower and middle level] are in disarray and very dangerous for locals, and international visitors.
Finally, as currently structured, the ongoing shenanigan of the executive where the sector is in the pocket of families, friends, and Fools [FFF], is tantamount to failure before it even started.
By Lucky Onoriode George [Lagos, Nigeria]