NIGERIA BENCHMARKS WITH KENYA ON CULTURAL TOURISM

Posted by Marvel Adeyemi

Nigeria is set to benchmark with Kenya on cultural tourism and handicrafts to boost her tourism numbers.

The Cross River  State of Nigeria is keen on learning on Kenya's cultural tourism product that has become prominent and pulling factor into tourists to the country besides beach and wildlife safari.

The Director  of Culture in Calabar, the Cross River State capital city Dr. Mary Teresa Agba said the State has a lot to learn from Kenya as the  City seeks to brand itself as a cultural destination.

"Besides the wildlife and beach safari that we have known Kenya for , we are keen on learning on how to develop and repackage culture as a product as well as embracing sustainable tourism through handicraft business ," says Agba.

She said empowering the communities  through handicrafts,  souvenir was one way of ensuring sustainability as well as embracing of Eco tourism practices that is becoming popular in current tourism.

"We are aware of Kenya's zeal towards Eco tourism by giving communities priorities in areas such as handicrafts, community-made wares among other opportunities that have direct impact on local communities where tourism is being carried out.

Calabar city is a tourism hub for a Nigeria attracting slightly over 0.5 million tourists a year through the famous Calabar festivals that usually takes place between November and December.

The festival showcases cultures such as marriage , cuisine, costumes, dances, oral literature among others.

The city has shown keen interest on borrowing a leaf from Kenya's cultural activities in the villages within the tourism attraction areas as well as the annual cultural events such as lake Turkana cultural festivals, Maralal international camel derby and Lamu cultural festivals among others .

The call for benchmarking comes during  Kenya's launch of training for  over 200 travel trade in the Western countries of Ghana and Nigeria that have shown the potential to the growth of Kenya tourism .

Last year, both countries contributed to 23,000 tourists to Kenya which KTB says can shoot up remarkably with increased marketing activities .
National carrier , Kenya airways is set to launch a direct flight from Abuja to Nairobi , a move that is poised to increase the number of tourists to Kenya.