By Otunba Wanle Akinboboye

My name is Otunba Wanle Akinboboye and I founded and operate an African tourism brand under the name La Campagne Tropicana. My Organisation focuses on tourism and through its facilities, presents the best of African architecture, culture, and cuisine in a cosmopolitan manner.

The Resorts we have established and are establishing are located in rural or semi-rural areas that include Ibeju Lekki Lagos State, Ondo town & Araromi in Ondo State, Koton Karfi, Kogi State, Cote D’Ivoire and most recently Antigua & Barbuda.

Over the past 40 years I have had the opportunity of merging two great passions – assisting in developing an African tourism industry and leveraging off that industry to create a better life for ordinary Africans who would not normally be eligible for employment in ‘western style’ tourism facilities.

In my humble opinion, Nigeria is the cultural capital of the world. It is a country of over 420 distinct cultures. It also has diverse natural attractions like beaches, mountains, and waterfalls.

It has abundant and diverse flora and fauna. I strongly believe that monetizing our culture by making it the focus of our tourism industry will preserve and enhance the same. A prime example of this method is the UK which has made its traditions and history the centre of a tourism industry that generated £214 billion for the UK in 2022.

We have all seen the revolutionary steps that have been made by young African musicians in selling Africa’s music to the world. Similar moves should be made to sell the concept of Africa’s culture so that international tourists will demand first-hand access to and visit the continent.

The promotion of village, eco-tourism, and weaving tourism around nature can contribute to the development of cultural tourism.

In this, we will require the cooperation of grassroots communities. The fact that my focus has been on developing resorts and locations situated in rural areas has given me the unique opportunity to experience, firsthand, the synergy that results from involving host communities in the development and running of tourism facilities.

Approximately 40 years ago I decided to establish my flagship resort at Ikegun in Ibeju – Lekki, Lagos State. At that time, the area was not accessible by road and my first visits were via boat through the creeks that connect the city of Lagos to other parts of the state.

In selecting a site for the Resort, I knew it was important to ensure that any neighboring community was amenable to the existence of and would work with the tourism facility I wanted to create.

I, therefore, made it imperative to engage with the leadership of the communities that were the potential sites for the Resort. This was so I could be sure that my final choice would be driven by the fact that the leadership of that community and by extension, its people, could buy into the vision of and support the development of the Resort.

In effect, I was looking for a community that was prepared to partner with me in growing an African tourist facility because they understood the long-term benefits of partnering with my organization, which benefits included infrastructural development and employment opportunities for their community. In this regard, and as I had earlier mentioned, the Resorts I develop are African-themed and showcase the best of our architecture, culture, and cuisine.

My focus on developing African-themed facilities is based on my belief that, in terms of tourism, Africa needs to provide a unique proposition if it wants to compete with other tourism destinations and attract tourists that may be jaded by their existing experiences.

It is pertinent to mention that, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, travel and tourism contributed 10.4% to global GDP and supported over 334 million jobs in 2019. Obviously, if the continent could secure only 15% of that global figure it would positively impact Africa’s GDP and employment figures. In my humble opinion, Africa’s unique tourism proposition lies in its environment and its rich culture. If we truly want to develop an international tourism industry for Africa and by extension Nigeria, we cannot offer a pale shadow or replica of what is available elsewhere. Why should an international tourist come to Africa to stay in a resort that is a copy of a resort in another continent? Why should such a tourist receive services that he considers subpar because we have a different understanding of the services he should receive. In making comparisons we may fall short.

EMPLOYMENT

It is pertinent to mention that, at La Campagne Tropicana’s resorts, a significant number of our employees come from the surrounding rural communities. We are, via our African-centric focus able to leverage off their strengths.

We are also not constrained by the need to ensure that what we offer mimics the offerings of other tourism destinations. The majority of the cleaning staff at our Ikegun Resort, who are women, come from the villages around us.

We have, with appropriate training, been able to harness their skills to provide a stellar standard of cleanliness within the Resort. The village has also benefitted, as these women have been gainfully employed and earn income streams that contribute to the financial wealth of their families.

From my interactions, I have observed first-hand the fact that when women are income earners their main focus is to use their earnings to improve the lives of their families. Our head cleaner, who has been with us for over 16 years, recently built a house whose rooms she rents out to finance the education of her children. Our operations manager, who started work as a cleaner over two decades ago, owns a number of houses in the village and has a side business of poultry that supplies eggs to the Resort.

When sadly, she became widowed last year, she was able to support her family and ensure they did not unduly suffer financially from the loss of the head of the family. As an aside, the men in the village have also expressed their gratitude for keeping their wives gainfully employed. They say the women have less time to start arguments, are less inclined to make monetary demands on them, and in the words of their Baale (monarch)’ Witches No Longer Fly in the Village’.

I am also proud that, in our Resort, we have generations of employees as the children of some of our staff work alongside their parents and are invested in the Resort’s continued success.

We have also seen situations where villagers, who had moved to Lagos, return to work at the Resort as they realize their money goes further and their quality of life is better when they don’t have to dissipate funds on expensive accommodation and daily transportation.

A significant number of our employees are youths. This is important given the large youth population in Africa and the need to create long time employment for this significant sector of our population. Where youths are gainfully employed, it provides them with dignity and reduces the restiveness and drift towards crime that has given rise to many of the current negatives we see in our country today.

As we are all aware, our current educational system at the grassroots level leaves much to be desired. It is not unkind to say that its products would find it difficult to compete for jobs that require high-functioning technical skills.

By focusing on our African culture we are able, through tourism, to create jobs for which our rural dwellers are a natural fit due to their inherent morals and values. Developing tourism organizations that leverage our cultural identity will create sustainable employment opportunities for the youths in our rural areas who would be considered unsuitable for employment by tourism facilities that are modeled on existing European or American facilities.

As I have mentioned earlier, the Resorts my organization develops utilize African architecture and decor albeit with a cosmopolitan twist. Accordingly, within our Resorts we employ traditional building methods that require the skills of people at the grassroots. These structures include mud huts and what we refer to as tree houses, which are built of wood. Many structures have thatched roofs and our doorbells are talking drums. The ceilings of our huts are constructed with mats. Our traditional building methods provide employment for local artisans from the surrounding villages and further afield, who are comfortable building structures using methods that have been used by their forefathers.

They also have the opportunity to hone their skills via the innovations we have introduced to provide a cosmopolitan twist to these structures.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The impact of the Resort on the community is obvious when one considers the development of Ikegun village’s infrastructure over the years. When the Resort commenced business, its host village, Ikegun consisted of small huts built of Opa. The prosperity of the villagers is now evident in the steady expansion of the number of brick buildings and fishing boats in the community. There is also a petrol station. The Resort has also provided entrepreneurial opportunities for local residents, who provide goods and services to the Resort and its employees.

A study by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) found that tourism can directly contribute to poverty reduction, as income generated from tourism activities circulates within the local economy. The increased economic activity on the Eleko /Ikegun axis which gave birth to the free trade zone can, in my humble opinion be traced to investors that visited the resort and discovered the opportunities in the region.

Tourism activities from the Resort have in effect stimulated the growth of a multi-billion dollar free trade zone that is home to the world’s largest refinery and largest fertilizer plant in Africa amongst other companies.

The development of tourism facilities in rural areas will effectively open up these areas and stimulate other economic activities. This is because visitors to such tourism facilities will be able to determine the suitability of siting their investment in areas they would not otherwise have visited particularly where the government also offers investment incentives.

PRESERVATION OF CULTURAL IDENTITY AND ENVIRONMENT

By focusing on an African theme, tourism can assist in the preservation of our cultural heritage and values. As a matter of practice, La Campagne Tropicana embraces its host culture and has helped to preserve and showcase local traditions, arts, crafts, and heritage. This provides a platform for cultural exchange, promoting understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures on the part of the tourists and the locals.

The presence of tourists at the Resort has also incentivized the local community to maintain, protect and take pride in their cultural identity and traditions. According, to a study by the UNWTO, cultural tourism can account for up to 40% of global tourism, which further highlights the significance of establishing community partnerships as it is the local communities that are the custodian of the nation’s cultural heritage. The Resort has through its practices and incentives been able to encourage the local communities to adopt measures that protect and conserve the natural environment.

These include the recycling of plastic waste, cleaning of the beach fronts, preservation of trees through controlled measures for tree felling, etc.

CONCLUSION

When we talk about sustainable partnerships with the communities, I would like to mention that over the years our Resort has involved the community in projects undertaken by the Resort that impact them. We also provide some level of revenue sharing to ensure that they have a sense of ownership. We realised early on that where the community feels involved in the well-being of the Resort, it will take steps to police its members and ensure they do not disrupt our operations. The synergy that has been developed between the Resort and the community in relation to security issues has been invaluable. I would like to thank the organizers of this event for giving me the opportunity to share my views on this very important topic. I welcome any comments you may have on these views and hope that I have convinced you of the need to immediately execute a tourism agenda that involves and works with our communities.

Being the keynote address at the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN)’s Annual General Meeting in Abuja. 20th July 2023.