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Nigeria’s return to World Travel Market London, welcomed by NTDA Director-General Ola Awakan and credited to President Bola Tinubu, highlights the country’s renewed international tourism ambitions. Despite its globally influential entertainment industry and established business travel market, Nigeria faces obstacles to leisure tourism growth, including security concerns, infrastructure gaps and limited tour-operator distribution. This eTurboNews opinion examines why international exhibition participation alone is insufficient and how Nigeria could build a sustainable inbound tourism strategy.
Can Africa’s most populous country turn its cultural influence, business travel, and international exhibition appearances into a sustainable inbound leisure tourism industry? Or will the music stop when the trade show closes?
LONDON / ABUJA — Nigeria knows how to make an entrance. At international tourism exhibitions, the country’s colorful national attire, infectious rhythms, cultural performances and unmistakable energy can turn an ordinary trade-show aisle into a celebration. Nigeria has the population, culture, creativity, business connections and natural attractions to become one of Africa’s most compelling tourism destinations.
Yet beyond the exhibition halls, a different reality persists. International visitors still associate Nigeria mainly with business, family connections, and essential travel rather than conventional leisure holidays. As Nigeria returns to World Travel Market (WTM) London, the question is not whether the country can attract attention. It is whether that attention can finally be converted into international tourist arrivals.
A welcome return, but is it another temporary appearance?
Nigeria’s renewed participation in World Travel Market London has been welcomed by Ola Awakan, Director-General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA).
According to a statement attributed to Awakan, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deserves credit for enabling Nigeria’s return to major international tourism exhibitions after several years of absence.
“It is a good feeling to see Nigeria back where it truly belongs,” Awakan said.
He insists this should not be a one-off appearance. Nigeria, he says, is preparing to participate in FITUR Madrid and ITB Berlin, alongside other international travel industry gatherings.
These are encouraging declarations. But Nigeria has previously demonstrated enthusiasm for international tourism promotion without establishing the sustained market presence needed to convert awareness into bookings.
A national pavilion can generate photographs, media coverage and diplomatic goodwill. It cannot, by itself, create a functioning international leisure tourism market.
The more important question is what happens after WTM, when exhibitors return to Abuja and international tour operators return to selling destinations that are easier to book, explain and confidently recommend.
Nigeria’s tourism paradox: globally famous, rarely sold as a holiday
Nigeria is hardly unknown internationally.
Its Nollywood film industry reaches audiences far beyond Africa. Afrobeats artists influence global popular culture. Nigerian fashion, cuisine, literature and entrepreneurship have extraordinary international visibility.
Lagos offers nightlife, contemporary art, restaurants, entertainment and an energetic urban culture. The country also has heritage attractions, festivals, landscapes and communities that could support cultural and experience-based tourism.
Yet global cultural recognition has not translated into a comparable position on international leisure travel itineraries.
Nigeria receives international visitors, including business travelers, diaspora visitors and people traveling to see friends and relatives. It would therefore be misleading to suggest that Nigeria has no inbound tourism at all. The real problem is the relatively limited development and international distribution of organized leisure tourism.
Unlike Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda or South Africa, Nigeria is not widely featured in mainstream international holiday brochures or packaged itineraries. This is not because Nigeria lacks attractions. It is because a successful destination must sell much more than attractions.
Security, confidence and the visitor experience
International tour operators make decisions based on predictability, safety, accessibility, insurance requirements and their ability to deliver a satisfactory customer experience.
Nigeria faces serious challenges in several of these areas.
Security risks vary significantly by region, but international reporting about kidnapping, armed violence and other threats influences perceptions of the country as a whole. Foreign government travel advisories can also complicate insurance coverage and organized travel.
Other obstacles include transport infrastructure, uneven tourism services, limited international destination packaging and the difficulty of connecting attractive experiences into convenient, reliable itineraries.
Visa reforms and improved airport procedures can help, but implementation matters more than announcements.
An international visitor interested in Nigerian culture should be able to identify a trustworthy local operator, book a coherent itinerary, understand the entry requirements, travel safely between attractions and receive consistent service.
Until this becomes routine, Nigeria will struggle to convert cultural curiosity into substantial leisure tourism revenue.
The numbers expose the challenge
Figures attributed to UN Tourism put Nigeria’s international overnight tourist arrivals at approximately 539,000 in 2024, with international tourism receipts of around $344 million. Different statistical series report higher arrival totals, highlighting the need for clearer, comparable national tourism data. The Contemporary Tourist Intelligence+1
These figures include more than holidaymakers. They cannot establish how many international visitors came specifically for leisure.
Meanwhile, the United States advises its citizens to reconsider travel to Nigeria, and the United Kingdom advises against travel to numerous regions. These warnings are significant commercial obstacles for tourism companies. Travel State+1
Nigeria cannot overcome such barriers through colorful exhibition displays alone.
From business destination to experience destination
Perhaps Nigeria’s most realistic opportunity is to build on the international visitors it already attracts.
Business travelers attending conferences or meetings in Lagos and Abuja could become customers for carefully organized cultural experiences, culinary tours, entertainment packages and short extensions.
Diaspora visitors could become ambassadors for a more structured visitor economy.
Nollywood, Afrobeats and Nigerian fashion could provide internationally recognizable themes for specialized tourism products.
But these opportunities require private-sector partnerships, destination management, consistent marketing and credible security arrangements.
Instead of attempting to sell the entire country as one undifferentiated tourism destination, Nigeria could begin with specific, professionally managed experiences in locations where risks can be appropriately assessed.
Will Nigeria still be visible after ITB Berlin?
Awakan’s promise of continued participation in FITUR and ITB Berlin deserves encouragement, but also scrutiny.
The NTDA should publish measurable objectives: how many tour operators will begin selling Nigerian experiences, how many commercial partnerships will be concluded, and how many additional leisure visitors will result?
Trade-show attendance should become part of a multiyear strategy rather than an annual opportunity for official speeches and photographs.
Nigeria does not need to prove that it has culture, hospitality, music or personality. The world already knows that.
What it must demonstrate is that international travelers can confidently purchase and enjoy those experiences.
For now, Nigeria’s greatest tourism export may remain the Nigerian cultural experience enjoyed abroad, rather than the international visitor experience delivered at home.
The music at World Travel Market may be irresistible. The real success will come when visitors are willing to follow that music all the way to Nigeria.
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