A few weeks ago, I was reviewing a client’s new tourism strategy. Beautiful design. Inspiring photographs. Emotional descriptions of culture, heritage, and “potential.” Then I flipped to the budget and found… nothing. No numbers. No projected demand. No investment logic. No aviation or route analysis. No revenue models. Not even a line about the private sector.
Just vibes on premium paper. I remember smiling politely and thinking, “Tourism in Africa isn’t misunderstood, it’s under-measured.”
And that’s the heart of this week’s conversation. If we want tourism to transform economies, policymakers must learn to speak the language investors understand the language of economic literacy, not cultural poetry.
Tourism Has Changed. Our Literacy Has Not.
Across Africa, tourism is still often described with words like: “rich culture,” “beautiful landscapes,” “vibrant festivals,” “unique experiences.” These are lovely. But they don’t move money. Investors don’t invest in adjectives. They invest in returns, risk frameworks, and predictable systems.
Meanwhile, the tourism economies we admire the Emirates’, the Jordans’, the Jamaica’s’, the Rwanda’s’ have quietly mastered a different literacy: airline economics, hotel yield management, customer lifetime value visa elasticity, MICE demand modelling, transit passenger capture, PPP structures and diaspora capital flows
Tourism is not a cultural sector. It is a services export, a financial asset class, and an economic engine. Yet too many of our tourism discussions still behave like we are planning a school excursion.
What Policymakers Must Unlearn and Relearn
Let’s be honest: Many African policymakers are brilliant, accomplished, and deeply committed. But tourism literacy has never been embedded in our public institutions. So we often see plans built on emotion rather than economics. Here’s what needs to shift.
A. From “Heritage” to “Hospitality Assets”
Policymakers must understand:
A destination is not a location. A destination is an asset portfolio hotel, airports, operators, routes, attractions, retail ecosystems, and human capital. Without that perspective, planning stalls at decoration, not development.
B. From “Events” to “Economic Multipliers”
A festival isn’t just entertainment. A homecoming season isn’t just celebration. A pilgrimage isn’t just spiritual movement. These are economic multipliers that affect: jobs, transport revenue, SME sales, FX inflow, tax performance etc. If we measured them properly, tourism would stop fighting for relevance in national budgets.
C From “Tourists” to “Consumers and Investors”
Every visitor is: a potential repeat buyer, a word-of-mouth marketing engine, a diaspora reconnector and sometimes, an investor in disguise
Our Tourism offices must start collaborating actively with: investment promotion agencies, diaspora commissions, chambers of commerce, Nigerian Investment promotion council, Nigeria Export promotion council and actively with the Ministry of Trade. This is how Ghana turned “Year of Return” into USD 1.9B of economic activity.
D. From “Promoting Culture” to “Structuring Capital”
The global tourism market is not waiting for Africa’s charm. It is competing for Africa’s stability. Investors ask: What are the visa rules? What are the aviation agreements? What is the land-use policy? How predictable is this government? Where is the data? If policymakers don’t speak this language, we cannot attract capital only compliments.
What True Tourism Literacy Looks Like
When you walk into a meeting with global tourism leaders, this is what they discuss: occupancy rates, average daily rates (ADR), load factors, route profitability, visa conversion rates length of stay, expenditure per segment, public–private investment ratios, diaspora repeat-cycle patterns, creative industry spill overs, labour requirements environmental sustainability metrics.
This is the literacy we must adopt in Nigeria and across Africa. Tourism literacy = economic literacy.
Nigeria’s Opportunity: Don’t Just Promote Tourism, Quantify It
Nigeria has: a massive diaspora, unmatched cultural reach, strong domestic travel energy, a booming creative industry, spiritual tourism demand, untapped business travel corridors etc. We are a tourism giant with no spreadsheet. Imagine what would happen if Nigeria:
- measured December tourism flows
- valued creative economy demand
- quantified the diaspora effect
- analyzed Umrah-linked travel patterns
- tracked domestic leisure trends
- modelled Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt as aviation hubs
We would stop guessing tourism. We would start governing tourism.
Final Word
Tourism literacy is not about learning new terms. It’s about learning a new way of thinking one that treats tourism as capital, not culture. If African policymakers speak investment, investors will finally listen. If we speak aviation, routes will open. If we speak economic value, budgets will shift. And if Nigeria adopts this literacy, we will transform our tourism story from potential to prosperity.
Tourism is not vibes. Tourism is value. And value begins with literacy.
#OfficeHoursWithTEA #TourismInvestment #TourismEconomics #NigeriaTourism #PolicyMatters #ElizabethAgboola
Tourism is not just about places. Tourism is about stories. And Nollywood tells Nigeria’s story every single day globally, loudly, proudly. If we want Nigeria’s tourism industry to grow, if we want travellers to feel at home before they even land, if we want cultural power to translate into economic power, then cinema must enter the tourism equation intentionally, strategically, unapologetically.
Because storytelling is soft power. Soft power shapes demand. And demand is the heartbeat of tourism.
#OfficeHoursWithTEA #FilmTourism #Nollywood #CulturalEconomy #SoftPower #NigeriaTourism #ElizabethAgboola
