Dubai Firms to Showcase at Akwaaba

Chinedu Eze

Organisers of Akwaaba African Travel Market has announced that Dubai would be attending the event this year with over 15 companies.

Dubai has become the biggest destination for Nigerian travellers with over 20 flights a day terminating in Dubai from Lagos and Abuja. It is believed that over 300,000 Nigerians pass through Dubai every year. These companies include Jumeirah, Red Apple, Khimji, Sun and Sand, Apha Tours, Swissotel and Copthorne Hotel. Others are Rayna Tourism, Mgallery, Arabian Adventures, Dubai Health Authority, Wings Tours, Pullman City Centre Hotel, JA Resorts & Hotels, Ritz Carlton and Dubai Tourism.

This comes as Gambia Tourism Board seeks to renew their presence in Nigeria.

As part of latest efforts to increase awareness for The Gambia as an all-year tourism destination for discerning Nigerian visitors and prospective investors, the Gambia Tourism Board has announced its participation at the 14th Akwaaba – African Travel Market holding in Lagos between September 9th to 11th 2018.

Also, The Gambia confirmed its participation with a 20man delegate for the event to include top stakeholders in the industry to be led by the Director General, Gambia Tourism Board.

Earlier this year, the Akwaaba travel market team had organised the ‘Banjul Bantaba’ event with a familiarization trip to the Gambia and a high powered B2b session which showed Nigerians the amazing potentials for Touristic splendor and introduced some of the new tour operators to the destination. The fall out was amazing with increasing requests for packages to The Gambia. The organisers of Akwaaba Travel Market, west Africa’s largest meetings and exhibition event is excited to announce that Gambia will be participating this year after three years of absence from the annual trade show in Nigeria.

In a statement signed by the Marketing Director, Gambia Tourism Board, Adama Njie, the organisation promised visitors to The Gambia stand on Gambia Day an unforgettable Gambian experience. Top hotels, Tour Operators and stakeholders would be attending from The Gambia.

He assured visitors a “taste of some of our national cuisine, music and multimedia presentation of the range of our trendy and exquisite resort facilities, cultural patrimony, ecotourism, exotic fauna and flora attributes throughout our beautiful country, which have earned The Gambia the acronym –the Smiling Coast of Africa.

The Gambia Day event is set to flow from Sunday with the Jollof rice contest into Monday where the Gambia Day proper will hold, The Gambia is keeping no secrets as they will be deploying the best of the team to meet Nigerians and see the beautiful loving tourist destination. Gambia Tourism Board wants Nigerians to know that they are welcomed at any time and the event is open for all.

From the time of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) the west coast has been a high-yielding market for Nigerian airlines.

But unfortunately, Nigerian airlines do not survive long to benefit hugely from the market. Their lack of consistency and short life span do not give them the opportunity to reap from this route.

There was a time the defunct Virgin Nigeria Airways depended on the market for the sustenance of its operation. At that time, the airline had about 41 per cent of the market.

Airlines don’t just make money from ticket sales in the west coast, they also make money from cargo movement. Because of low capacity, the fares are always unduly high, which is a discouraging factor for passengers.

In fact, the west coast market is driven by business. Traders from Nigeria, Ghana, Code d’Ivoire, Cameroon and other states in the west and central Africa trade among themselves. It is business that has lasted for centuries.

There was a time a large chunk of wild meat consumed in Nigeria were coming from Cameroon, wild boars, buffaloes etc; clothing was coming from Senegal and Ghana and others.

During Air Peace inaugural flight to Monrovia, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the airline Mr. Allen Onyema said the Nigerian carrier was championing seamless air connectivity in Africa to ensure the economic growth of the continent and ease the travel challenges of the people.

“We began our intervention in the air travel difficulties of the West Coast of Africa with the inauguration of LagosAccra service in February 2017. A year later in 2018, we deepened our presence in the region with the addition of Freetown, Banjul and Dakar to our route network.

“The addition of Monrovia to our route network is a fitting response to the yearnings of the flying public for the Air Peace experience. The launch of Monrovia brings our regional destinations to five. We are connecting Monrovia from Abuja and Lagos through Accra. Shortly, we hope to add more destinations to our regional route map,” he added.

Also last Sunday Overland Airways marked its inaugural flight services from Lagos to Cotonou, Republic of Benin and Lome, Togo Republic.

The Managing Director of Overland Airways, Captain Edward Boyo said history was made with flight operations into Lome.

“We have come to promote trade. Trade happens when people move from one point to the other. Every evening, Overland will leave Lome at 8.30pm. Passengers will go to Lagos and do business for the whole day in Lagos and when they are ready to come back, they go to the airport by 6.30pm to join Overland.

“It is possible for prosperity and economic development to come to our lands. We have come to Lome and Togo to stay. We are here to provide service,” he added.

Analysing the market, travel expert, Ikechi Uko said Overland and Air Peace may last long in the West Coast market because they have chosen the right aircraft type. Overland uses ATR 42/72 while in addition to Boeing B737; Air Peace would be deploying its 50-seater Embraer 145 on the routes.

What is fruitful about the West Coast is that it yields revenue in foreign exchange and its flight duration ranges from about three hours to 35 minutes.

“The load factor is smaller and more profitable, so choosing the right equipment has been the problem for Nigerian airlines but Air Peace and Overland have got it right, this time.

“This is Overland’s first foray abroad. It has taken advantage of a low hanging fruit so with its aircraft type; it needs about 20 passengers to survive in the routes. Overland has the right equipment, but it needs to connect to other airlines to take its passengers farther in the West Coast than to operate point to point,” Uko, the organiser of Akwaaba African Travel Market said.

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Managing Agency ( NAMA), who had operated the West Coast routes for several years as a pilot, described it as high yielding market.

Well, the west coast is high yield market, so it is up to you to take advantage of it. Some of the payments are made in foreign exchange, so it makes sense.

By share population alone and the fact that you must look at the market, who are the people that travel more? Nigerians travel more. Number one, we have the population. Number two, by our nature we travel; by our nature we are very aggressive as traders, it is not something that anybody invented, it is a natural thing. We are highly mobile, we are good traders. So, you find it that throughout the West African coast. Tell me where Nigerians are not in such numbers as dominating some of the economic activities?” he said.