Nigeria’s tourism industry is one that is bereft of investments on the scale that is commensurate to the array of its scenic locations, heritage sites, cultural and archeological artifact; others are eco-tourism opportunities which comprises of the 4,715 different plant species and 550 species of breeding birds and mammals, making Nigeria a large swath of unexplored and unexploited tourism haven.
One reason for this is that the Federal Government of Nigeria remains the sole largest investor in the country’s tourism potentials and sub-sector. As such the tourism industry has to contend with investments in the likes of the education and health sectors. Before rebasing Nigeria’s economy recently the tourism industry was contributing about 0.8% to the country’s gross domestic product GDP, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. At the moment however the Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises reports that international arrivals up 17.5% while the receipts have been increasing steadily reaching around 5.3%. The latter has ensured that Nigeria is now ranked 8th in Africa as a tourism destination lagging behind countries like Egypt, Gambia and South Africa.
To boost the investment and sustainability of tourism sector in Nigeria it is time for Nigeria to look at the tourism tax option usually attached to services offered like hotel accommodation.
States in Nigeria can thus reform there bylaws to reflect “tourism contribution” especially states with a huge tourism base like Plateau, Lagos, Niger and Cross River States amongst several others. In cities like Venice, the city’s cultural sites have been maintained by a tourist contribution which has in turned helped to protect the environment and most importantly keep the public transportation system running. Other European cities that have similar taxation placed on tourists are the cities of Barcelona, Amsterdam and Hamburg. The schemes vary from city to city –with the city of Hamburg exempting visitors whose visa indicates are travelling to the city on business.
Top tourism destinations like Dubai –have also taken a cue from the aforementioned European cities. This past March, the Dubai Emirate introduced the Tourism Dirham; the authorities in Dubai had passed a resolution which became effective on the 31st of March 2014. The resolution stated that the charge shall range from a minimum of 1.9 USD to almost 35 USD -per night per room, per night for all guests staying in a holiday accommodation, which will include hotels, hotel apartments, guest houses and holiday homes.
To achieve this, the authorities in the gulf state, have established the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce which shall not only drive tourism in the sector but also strive to uphold Dubai’s economic pillars of trade and tourism.
With the decay suffered by some of the cultural and historical sites in Nigeria, it is important that the tourism tax is giving more than a passing thought. To illustrate the importance it is good to take into considerations projects like the Zuma Rock Hotel not far from Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory beside the iconic Zuma Rock, which is popular across Nigeria as the rock with a face, some meters away also is the Zuma Rock hotel a luxury hotel that has been under construction since 1980.
No government in the past 34 years has been able to break the jinx of completing the Zuma Rock Hotel, the current administration had invited a United States based company and European climbers who braved the rocky face of the rock and the myth surrounding it to climb its summit for the first time in the history of the Rock, the event also heralded a grand plan that was to be funded by a consortium of foreign investors in conjunction with the Niger State government but the global melt down truncated the proposed development and it has lapsed back to its dejected and abandoned state once more. So also the Ladi Kwali Pottery centre, a world recognized art and craft centre of the famous potter Ladi Kwali in Suleja, local government area, some twenty minutes drive from Zuma Rock has also fallen into tragic ruins, with the local government unable to maintain the workshop and the display room. Most states in Nigeria are replete with several state funded tourism projects, that can hardly stand the test of time.
Tourism tax can also be piloted at the state level whereby states that have made massive investments in tourism can decide to levy guests who visit there location or host events like weddings and conferences. One of such states in Nigeria is Cross River State with the Tinapa complex or the Obudu Cattle Ranch all these facilities have involved massive investments that were either loan taken from banks or funded from the state’s coffers. As such a state like Cross Rivers can leverage on tourism tax derived from events like Calabar Festival, were big brands can be levied to advertise during the Festival and all hotels will be mandated to pay taxes too. No doubt the state will record a massive cash haul as tourism tax as it usually records 100 percent on its booked rooms.
In Ekiti State also the government of Kayode Fayemi has invested and turned around the moribund Ikogosi Warm Springs, the turnaround most importantly has brought back life to the country side of Ikogosi-Ekiti. Thus the acclaimed therapeutic warm spring which flows side-by-side a cold one has become once again the tourism Mecca it was some years back; such is the political will of Fayemi in ensuring that the state improves its internally generated revenue IGR through its tourist attractions. However, the state can go a step further by sustaining the investments made at Ikogosi Warm Spring, by collecting a tourism tax from the guests that lodge there.
Amongst the likely fears of industry players would be the fact that the hoteliers might not remit the agreed taxes, however, the Dubai scheme has pegged the penalty of non-remittance at almost 5,000 USD a similar penalty and more checks can be included here too. With the multiplicity of taxes, the tax burden will also fall squarely on the shoulders of the guests and not the business providers.
This no doubt provides an opportunity for growth, the slave museums and trails in Badagry, the Gidan Makama and its pristine history and other thousands of tourist centers in Nigeria will benefit from a contributory tourism tax, and Nigeria is ripe for such a collective enterprise.
Alkasim Abdulkadir is a multi-media journalist, he has worked as a Producer for BBC Media Action and as a news contributor for CNN, Aljazeera, France 24 and Guardian UK. He is Contributing Editor at The Trent.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
