I was in the office trying to write this piece. It suddenly struck me to ask my colleagues if they have ever visited a zoo. To my surprise, out of the 10 persons in the office, only five have visited a zoo.
Then I asked about visiting a museum. The result was more shocking. Only three have visited a museum. Only one of them has been to about five zoos in Nigeria.
Figures from Scotland
Here is why I asked those questions.
I read recently that Scotland’s top tourist destinations attracted an extra 1.7 million visitors in 2014, boosting visitor figures to more than 55 million for the year, according to a new study.
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh was once again the top attraction, with more than 1,639,509 visitors. The National Gallery in Edinburgh, Lomond Shores, and Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow were also popular.
The research, carried out by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), found Historic Scotland’s Edinburgh Castle was the most popular paid attraction, with 1,480,676 visitors in 2014, up 4.3 per cent compared to 2013. Top paid attractions also included Edinburgh Zoo, Edinburgh Bus Tours, Stirling Castle and Glasgow’s Science Centre.
Surprise visit to War Museum
The first time I visited a zoo was in 1997, after high school.
I visited a museum for the first time in 2009 while working as experienced trainer in a multilevel marketing company. I had a training to do for the company’s distributors in Umuahia, Abia State. After one of the training sessions, a distributor offered to take me round town.
We went to the War Museum where I saw relics of guns, artilleries, armoured vehicles, aircraft, uniforms, and pictures of the battlefields of Nigerian and Biafran soldiers.
I learnt about how Biafran generals used European mercenaries, several of whom died in battle. I suddenly came face to face with the realities of the struggles of our leaders past to navigate this country to where we are now.
National Museum, an eye opener
On my return from that trip, I visited the National Museum in Onikan, Lagos. Again, I acquainted myself with the history of my fatherland, Nigeria.
I observed at the museum in Lagos that most of the visitors were foreigners. Foreigners who, for curiosity to know more about us or for educational or research purposes, go to the museum. Nigerians do not have a passion to know about their past, their history.
Concerned about the low human traffic to the museum, I went to make enquiries at the curator’s office. I wondered to her why we have such a rich history in the museums and nobody is talking about it.
I grew up in Lagos and had my primary and secondary education here, and no one spoke of the museum to me! I asked why the lack of awareness!
Adopting Scottish strategy
The figures from Scotland, as astounding as they appear, are not my attraction. I am particular about the strategy they adopted to raise such awareness that paid off with such huge result.
Scotland set up a department to handle tourism development.
John Lennon, Director of the Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development at GCU, said 2014 “proved to be a winning year with visitor attractions enjoying the profile Scotland gained internationally as a result of key events…”
Tourism road map
In the last quarter of 2014, I attended the maiden tourism summit in Akwa Ibom organised by the state tourism company to develop a tourism road map.
After participants and paper presenters analysed the tourism potentials of Akwa Ibom, it became obvious that what the state needs urgently is partnership with marketing agents.
Structures attract people to places. But the structures need to be packaged to sell them to people. Promotion is vital to achieving that goal. While the layman sees tourism as merely travel from one place to another, it is pertinent to put tourism and what it means in perspective for people to understand.
Also paramount is putting up appearances on platforms where sellers, marketers, and promoters meet. Tourism is sold through channels. It is the responsibility of the agencies on the tourism landscape to identify and utilise these channels.
Other success stories
Other success stories include Glasgow’s Riverside Museum, which saw visitor numbers rise 41.8 per cent between 2013 and 2014 to 1,049,834 and The Helix in Falkirk, which, in its first year, welcomed an estimated 800,000 visitors, resulting in a knock-on effect in the local area and a 26.4 per cent rise in visitors to the Falkirk Wheel.
Susan Gray, Communications Manager at Scotland’s top tourist destination, expressed delight that “the National Museum of Scotland remains the most popular visitor attraction in Scotland.
“We are currently creating 10 exciting new galleries of decorative art, fashion, design, and science and technology and look forward to welcoming even more visitors when these open in summer 2016.”
Alasdair Smart, Manager of Lowland Canals Waterway, added: “It’s been an exciting year on Scotland’s canals and we’re immensely proud that the Falkirk Wheel has enjoyed its busiest 12 months since it first started turning back in 2002.
“2014 saw more than half a million people pay a visit to the world’s only rotating boat lift and we’ve now had more visitors than the entire population of Scotland.
“Even more than a decade since its opening, the chance to see this iconic feat of engineering in action is still drawing huge numbers of visitors, boosting the economy of the area, and helping put Falkirk on tourists’ ‘to-see’ lists the world over.
“The Falkirk Wheel is the jewel in the crown of Scotland’s canal network and now, with The Helix and The Kelpies nearby, the area has even more to offer.”
Stephen Duncan, Director for Tourism at Historic Scotland, which runs Edinburgh and Stirling castles, said: “Edinburgh Castle continues to enthral visitors from both home and abroad, and we are delighted that it continues to be the most visited paid-for attraction in Scotland.”
How tourism boosts local economy
Attracting foreign tourists to Nigeria is wonderful because of the enormous financial gains. Yet, it is equally very lucrative to draw locals to tourist sites.
If I were to visit Oguta Lake in Imo, Nike Lake in Enugu, and round off with a visit to the National War Museum in Abia, I would lodge in hotels, connect flights, do shopping, and ride in local taxis.
All these would boost the economy at each location.
