:: Free Traveler ::

Eccentric travel writers, tourism experts, and dedicated politicians across Africa gathered at the Cross River State which boasts to visitors that it is the “cleanest state in Nigeria,” for a five-day Ecotourism symposium. The conference was organized by the African Travel Association — a tourism group created to promote travel and investment in Africa.

With the onslaught of global warming fundamentally changing the cultural environments of emerging nations, eco-tourism is vastly seen as a medium to preserve these countries’ natural elements. The eco-tourism movement seeks to create sustainable economic development through the tourist industry, and conserve the biological and cultural elements of rising nations.

Mention the word “Nigeria” to anyone and all political correctness is unfairly abandoned because of the nagging stereotype adopted by the unenlightened that some Nigerians are scammers who are constantly conducting “backdoor deals.” In developing a steady tourism market, Nigerian politicians and tourism agencies are faced with the task of successfully trying to shed the negative images some hold of Nigeria and its people.

The Nigerian government blames the foreign media for perpetuating the crude depiction of their country, so in trying to secure a viable tourism market, officials have created the News Agency of Nigeria where news about the country will be distributed to both national and international media organizations.

Tourism experts view the negative image of Nigeria and the lack of amenities — such as, poorly trained immigration officials, high airport departure taxes, and slow customer services in the private and public sector — as a major factor in slowing down the tourism boom in the country.

Just an infant in the tourism stages, Nigeria is still in the process of showing the vital role tourism plays in fortifying the country’s economy to its citizens, and many are grasping onto the idea to create social and economic change.

Atim Annette Oton, a Nigerian expatriate who lives in and owns a retail store in Brooklyn, quickly adapted to Nigeria’s tourism venture and has opened a tourist curio shop in Lagos. Oton understands the direct and indirect benefits of ecotourism to Nigeria, and hopes all Nigerians embrace tourism in order to advance the country’s economic policies.

Tourism advocates at the ecotourism conference are pushing for an “Afrocentic” tourism platform, where Nigerian expatriates and Africans from the Diaspora will return to their “motherland” for vacation or investment.

Nigerians living aboard are estimated to number over three million, and, according to Edward Bergman, executive president of the Africa Travel Association, “If 10% of this market enjoyed their annual vacation in Nigeria and spent an average of $3,000 per visit, this will represent a conservative $900,000,000,” for the country’s economy.

In Calabar, the Governor of the Cross River State, Donald Duke, has already begun to create cross-cultural linkages with the African Diaspora to advance the country’s tourism model.

Calabar has used music as a form of repatriation, and has sent Nigerian students to learn how to play the Steel Pan instrument for six months in Trinidad and Tobago. The Calabar Steel Pan ensemble diversifies Nigeria’s cultural landscape and has created a visible link between Continental and Diaspora Africans.

Paul, a Steep Pan player with the group explained, “We believe that there is a common trait between Calabar and Trinidad with the style and music. In [Trinidad] we were trying to discover some of our brothers, and we felt at home in the country.”

Jake Otanka ObetsebiLamptey, Minister of Tourism, encouraged Africans living on the continent to embrace Afrcans in the Diaspora. He said, “We have to really unite African people and make them start to think about this as their home. If we truly embrace them as brothers and sisters, they will come back again, and start to make a long term investment to the continent.”

The current African tourism marketing strategy is changing from selectively advertising to white westerners to catering to Africans abroad by selling the concept of “developing the motherland.”

In South Africa, the Just African Heritage organization, a collection of tourism agencies around the country, will launch their first ever Black History Jazz Festival, aimed at Diaspora Africans to share the collective histories of Africans everywhere and encourage more Black tourist presence in the country.

Nigeria is using the ecotourism front to preserve its culture and promote the rich diversity of its people. One way they are doing this is by creating sustainable cultural institutions for both its citizens and outsiders to partake. The Abuja carnival, which kicks off every November, is a bilateral investment — the festival is seen as bringing all Nigerians together, but also contributing to the tourist market.

By putting on these cultural festivities, Nigeria hopes outsiders will understand the country’s groove, and experience the nation beyond its western media promoted mis-representation.
By Leslie Ann Murray, New York Amsterdam News, 12/7/2006