Supporting Tourism Business in Nigeria via Integrated Marketing

Abstract

Tourism in Nigeria could be a big business; however, the nation has not capitalized on it. When 30 black mayors from American cities came to Lagos for the Black Heritage Festival, a carnival parade followed by some traditional culture and a visit to Badagry, a former slave-exporting port; the then governor of Lagos State, appealed to the mayors for advice on how to attract American tourists. Nigeria is considered the largest black nation in the world, with the total population at 170,123,740 (million) people last recorded in July 2012 (Indexmundi. Com, 2012) and 250 languages; she is rich in oil, gas, and other natural resources such as gold, diamond, animal games, tropical rain forests, savannah grasslands, mangrove swamps and the shale savannah near the Sahara, and diverse culture. Being strategically located at the end of eastern part of West Africa, she is equally rich in tourism; nevertheless, the tourism industry in Nigeria is experiencing no growth, because of some fundamental problems. Therefore, this paper is to offer possible business (marketing) solutions on how tourism could be promoted in this nation, so as to have an impact on the economy.