Akwa Ibom challenges Cross River for tourism market

Akwa Ibom challenges Cross River for tourism market

Posted by Sylvester on Monday, December 29, 2014 0

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Akwa Ibom State is giving neighbouring Cross River State a stiff fight for the position of Nigeria’s major tourism destination.

The state is doing this by rapidly expanding and improving development of tourism and related infrastructure .
Since the commissioning of the Akwa Ibom International Airport, the state has partnered with airlines to ensure more flights arrive the destination, with a view to matching flight frequency at the Margret Ekpo International Airport Calabar, its rival.

The airport facility development is also yielding fruit, as many visitors, especially holiday makers, visit the state, although some Calabar-bound passengers fly through Uyo, in Akwa Ibom state because of the regularity of flights from there.
Patrick Umanah, a tour operator and indigene of Akwa Ibom state, observed that Le Meridian Ibom Hotel and Golf Resort is being promoted by the state and Starwood Group, the managers of the resort, as a one-stop-shop for leisure and exclusivity. The government, according to him, has also opened the Ibeno Beach to the public, furthering the leisure options for visitors.

Due to the growing number visitors, the state recently partnered with Starwood Group for a Four Points By Sheraton hotel facility in Ikot Epkene, while many other hotel brands are now seeing Uyo as an investors’ haven, somewhat changing the focus on the usual Calabar and Obudu.
By building the ultramodern 30,000 capacity stadium in Uyo, the government, according to Wale Olajide, a sports promoter, is taking the voluntary hosting right of Calabar Stadium, which before now used to be the venue for most foreign football matches in Nigeria.
The AFCON Qualifiers between Nigeria and South Africa was held at the stadium nicknamed Next of Champions by Godswill Akpabio,
governor of the state.
“With the matches hosted in Uyo, most hotels were fully booked. Investors in hospitality are now eyeing the state, while locals make brisk business on match days”, Olajide said.

In an attempt to also woo visitors during the Christmas period, as Cross River does with the Calabar Carnival, Akwa Ibom hosted the Christmas Carol Night. The event which has held over the past six years is aimed at gathering people to sing in praise of God, but is also a bait for outsiders to visit, see and appreciate the state.

“We had no space on December 20, 2014 when this year’s edition of the Christmas Carol Night held. Some guests stayed in hostels. It was good business for us and we hope for more events like it”, Benjamin Udeme, a hotel manager in Uyo said.
But tracing the beginning of the race for infrastructure development in the state, Isaac Ekong, a lawyer, said: “The story changed when the state government forwarded an Appropriation Bill of a whopping N309 billion for 2011, out of which 80 per cent was devoted to capital projects, thus making the state the highest in capital to recurrent ratio in the country. Since then, the state government has not relented in dreaming and actualising its dreams”.