Nigerians as Domestic Tourists

As we all know taking a holiday, even for a night or two, basically gives benefits that endure: great memories, quality time with loved ones, well-deserved escapes from dull routine, and a chance to experience new places, new people and new things.  

Nigerians  believe or are made to believe that one only has to vacate abroad for these, well its not true.

 I will give some facts before I go further;

• France, the worlds leading international tourism destination, remains the most visited country for years. The market for its attractions are largely domestic, 80% of French take their holidays within France.

• In South Africa, Africa's leading tourism destination , 70% of tourists to attractions are domestic.

• Countries like Denmark not really known as a tourist destination but have a robust tourism industry reason is domestic tourists account for 85% to 90% visitation to attractions.

Having said that, sincerely  our travel orientation has to change if we want to put Nigeria in the tourism map. Ask a cross section of Nigerians where they want to vacate and they would tell you some Caribbean island,France, Seychelles etc truth is because of cost,visa or other issues they end up not going for vacation for years, some end up not going at all.

Contributions 

• Nigerians as domestic tourists actually help to keep the attractions in business especially off peak and season, as their revenue from their patronage is used to maintain attractions, if the attractions are not able to keep up with running cost then it mostly likely won’t be in a state that overseas visitors would come to visit.Just like the case of Denmark.

• Also,domestic tourists can contribute immensely to sustainability of the sector if educated on promoting responsible tourism practices. Most Caribbean island have adopted this and it really worked.

Living and working  in today's world  is stress-full therefore travel is slowing becoming a basic need , it is advisable to take vacate at least once a year as holidays are a defining feature of non-work for workers to ease off .If you can afford to go overseas good, otherwise one can actually go on holiday back home.I would give a list of places one can visit in subsequent posts.

I hope i tried to be as brief as possible,Yes the beginning so far has been more like academic, we will get to the fun part soon. Next  post would be.Host communities as a stakeholder in the tourism industry.

Bye for now