By Christy Anyanwu
Ambassador Ikechi Uko is a travel expert, world traveller, business consultant and tourism and travel promoter. He is the organiser of Akwaaba African Travel Market, the first international travel fair in West Africa, and publisher of Africa Travel Quarterly Magazine and atqnews.com.
At the 19th Akwaaba Africa Travel and Tourism Market, which took place in Lagos and was concluded at Eko Hotel & Suites, Lagos, and came to a close on September 5, 2023, more than 30 exhibitors were present, displaying different aspects of the tourism, medical, and hospitality industries. The event attracted big flyers in the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as government functionaries from different African countries.
In this interview with Saturday Sun, the Akwaaba boss spoke about the goings-on in the industry.
What are the takeaways from this year’s Akwaaba?
First of all, for us, personally, Akwaaba is back to the three-day format. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we couldn’t do three days. Akwaaba is back to its platform with the single fact that we now have an international audience that is coming back to Akwaaba; that’s a vote of confidence.
The third part is, each day of the event, when its 6pm, it’s difficult to get people out of the hall. I had to ask security men to, please, escort everybody out. That tells you that people want to engage. You can do it online, but there are so many other things you cannot do online. Relationships, those kinds of person-to-person interactions, are needful. But on the other level, we were able to prove that Africa needs to grow the next generation, not just in travel but in almost everything. There is a need for a new generation of leaders emerging from Africa. What we did this year is to initiate that conversation that we need to be intentional about replacement of established leaders in Africa. That, to me, is the most successful thing about this year’s Akwaaba. We have initiated a conversation about succession planning in Africa.
What is your take about the tourism industry in Africa?
Africa’s tourism industry lacks young mentees. For a lot of countries in Africa, I asked them, “Can you nominate two or three people in your country that you think are pioneers, inspirational?” We gave them the terms and the conditions and our criteria.
Unfortunately, most countries couldn’t nominate one person. I didn’t just ask one person, I asked like 10. And why is it that there is nobody here? “Oh, the young ones, I don’t think they deserve it, I don’t think they’re good enough, they’re not detailed.”
Now, if the young ones are not good enough, how many did you mentor? Can you tell me one person that you mentored that you could say, I picked this person and I put him here? So, I reversed it. Don’t complain. Tell me someone you have mentored that can take over. If those of us who pioneered this thing in Africa, if we walk away, who takes over? The problem is not the problem of the youths. It is the problem of those of us who have gone through those doors. Yeah, we paid the price, but how many people are we leading to walk into the place of the future? There is a lack of people who will lead Nigeria’s travel industry in the next generation. Therefore, I charge major players in the field to mentor people for this task. On the same note, the players in the tourism industry need to invest in educational and medical tourism, seeing that it is the future of tourism in Nigeria.
It’s not just in this industry. The next-generation problem in Africa is real. The only place we are not having that problem is probably in FinTech. In most other industries, they’re having a problem of creating stars for the next generation.
What do you think of the future of tourism in Nigeria?
The future of tourism in Nigeria is going towards two things. Education and medical. Education has always been there. The more people become successful, the more they care about their health, and the more they care about what they eat. They want to enjoy the work they do. For you, we just brought a new business, one billion dollars worth of business out of Nigeria, and it is going to grow. So, if you’re in the tourism business and you just do leisure and business travelling, you don’t do medical, you’re missing something.
What has been your experience trying to uplift tourism?
It’s been tough because you are in a place where a lot of people do not appreciate what you do. But there are people who you give value to and those people appreciate what you do. It is better if you have the whole country appreciate the charge, the vision, what it takes to be able to make tourism work, and I think gradually we are getting there. I’m happy that a lot of young people are given attention. When we started, it was difficult. It was like a lone voice crying in the desert. Now, God has made it possible that more people have joined. So, the expectation is higher. I am happy that the country is responding and people are getting more involved and the business of tourism is growing.
As Akwaaba boss, what’s your typical day like?
Akwaaba is global, so you don’t work on “African time.” Most of the time, people wake up while you’re still sleeping, they send messages. You are connecting with people all over the world. We give value to people. We are the biggest travel market in Africa without government support. We are among the top five in Africa and yet we are the only one that is not augmented. We don’t get any support or sponsorship from any federal agency or any state government. So, we are the only viable travel expo in Africa.
My day starts with reading and exercise, then on days of meetings, it is meetings and meetings and meetings nonstop. That is what we do in Akwaaba. You are meeting online, you are making phone calls, and you are dealing with people in different countries. Akwaaba is a three-day event but we plan it for 12 months. You plan Akwaaba for over 12 months, even designing concepts, trying to build platforms, is a massive thing. To be able to bring over 20 countries in Africa to Nigeria, that’s challenging. Every day, you devote to the same thing, get up, make sure you are mentally alert and physically okay, then you get to work.
What informed the move to have more about medical tourism in this year’s Akwaaba?
Medical tourism is one of the most vital tourism businesses in the world. In Nigeria, more than a billion dollars is spent on medical tourism every year. Tourism business is every kind of business. There’s educational tourism, there’s religion tourism, there’s medical tourism, So, Akwaaba is a platform that talks about tourism, medical, leisure, educational, transportation, etcetera.
Why is the United Arab Emirates, with their stand that is always large and attractive, not present this year?
Is Nigeria the UAE? Are they allowed to travel to each other’s country? They banned Nigeria, so they didn’t come.
But they were in Akwaaba last year…
No, they were not around. They just sent some people.
What influenced the under-40 awards at this year’s event?
We need a new generation of leaders in Africa. So, what we did was to recognise and probably create that new generation. In Africa, most of our leaders are old. So, why don’t we create a new generation? That’s why we recognised the under-40 leaders in African tourism and travel.
What made this year’s event different from previous editions of Akwaaba?
This year, at least you saw the growth of medical tourism. Last year, we only had two hospitals and this year we had close to 40 hospitals from all over the world. This year, we didn’t have one country dominate, we had more countries and more participation from Nigeria. We have a lot more people and we have better participation from Nigerians.
What are your expectations for Nigeria’s tourism industry?
That Nigeria becomes a major player. That is my expectation. We are not yet there. We are just a source market for other people. We are more than 200 million people, 36 states, some of the most beautiful places you have seen in the world are in Nigeria. Yet, how many millions visit the country? So, we need to be a major player. Unfortunately, a lot of countries don’t recognise or realise the great foreign exchange earning power of tourism and its effect on economic growth in countries, which is what Akwaaba is doing its utmost best to correct.
How do we achieve that?
By doing the right thing that other people do. Tourism is a business and the country has to learn how to do it. When we do the right things, we get better results. When you appoint the right people and you do the right things, when you put in place the right policies, you get the right results.
Akwaaba will be 20 years old next year. What should the world expect from you?
We have already started celebrating. I am sure you saw our cap. We have started celebrating already. There will be a lot lined up, and it will be in September next year. There will be a lot next year.
What other things are you passionate about and how has this influenced your personality today?
My life has always been about travel, reading, family and church. Then I do exercise. I wonder about my spirit, my soul, my body. Then outside travelling, I read. I do a lot of documentaries.
As a success story personified, what lessons has life taught you?
As a person, you have to have discipline. You have to master your emotions and you have to know there’s something bigger than you. There is God. That is very important. Other lessons I have learnt is that health is important. Give your health attention, or it can deny you all the joy of everything you have achieved. Then study to show yourself approved; the difference between me many years ago and me now is study. I am voracious in reading. I seek new experiences, knowledge everywhere. I listen to everybody, small children, adults, I learn from everybody.
Tell us a bit about your growing up
I grew up in Enugu and attended National Secondary School, Nike, Enugu. I worked as a ticketing officer with Nigeria Airways, ABC Enugu. It exposed me to travel, although I had always wanted to be a traveller, but it exposed me to global travel. From there, I went back to school; I studied geography at the University of Ibadan and graduated in 1985. I grew up in Enugu. I went to university in Ibadan. I did National Youth Service in Bauchi. In between, I was all over the country, and I fulfilled my natural wanderlust.
Are you passing the baton of Akwaaba to your children?
All my children are interested in travel and tourism because they all travelled with me as kids. They have all got involved in Akwaaba; all of them have worked in Akwaaba, while in school. All of my family likes to travel and they still travel. That is common to all of us. It will be their choice if they want to take up the challenge of Akwaaba in the future. All I owe them is good education and exposure.