NIGERIA DAY AT WORLD TRAVEL MARKET

The World Travel Market is the leading event for the global travel industry. It is an occasion for the global travel industry to convene and confer. The 2009 edition that held from November 9-12, 2009 at the famous Excel Convention Centre in London happened to be the 30th edition. This forum enables exhibitors from 87  countries to highlight their products and services. Conferences and seminars are held in the course of the exhibition that enable businesses stay abreast of current trends in the travel industry. The highpoint for participating tourism boards is usually their national days at the fair.

The Nigeria day at the event was on Thursday November 11. It had in attendance members of the press, officials of the top travel exhibitions such as FITUR, The World Travel Market (WTM) and the ITB.  There were musical performances by musicians of Nigerian descent based in the United Kingdom. The fun filled event had   guests dancing to the music and learning Nigerian dance steps. Visitors to the Nigeria day were made to experience a slice of the Nigerian hospitality through the various sumptuous Nigerian dishes and beverages that were served them. The beautifully designed and decorated Nigeria stand was indeed a crowd puller.

A day before the Nigeria day, the Director General of the Nigeria Tourism Development Commission, Otunba Segun Runsewe, addressed members of the press. Through his energetic delivery, he stressed that Nigeria has beautiful tourist destinations that surpasses what is available elsewhere in the world

“I like to tell you that it will interest you to know that only last year Nigeria generated about 500 million US dollars from tourism investments in our country alone; and somebody asked me ‘do you know that all the chains of hotels in the world, 6 are right now in Nigeria?’ ” said Otunba Runsewe.

If what the people at Reeds exhibitions (the organizers of the WTM) said is anything to go by, Nigeria had an impressive showing at the Travel Market and made so many friends in the process.