Warning to tourism stakeholders
‘Delay is dangerous’
...Music star Eedris Abdulkarim relives thrill of South African trip
By MAURICE ARCHIBONG
Thursday, August 14, 2008

•After the SAT/SAA workshop, some participants during a raffle draw. PHOTOS: MAURICE ARCHIBONG

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Procrastination, that notorious thief of time, was fingered as an enemy of travel, tourism and hospitality industry stakeholders during a one-day workshop, which took place in Lagos on Monday July 28, 2008. Countless people are familiar with the nursery rhyme, "Tick, tick, says the clock; what you have to do, do quick," but some speakers at the summit, held at the Victoria Crown Plaza Hotel in Victoria Island, more pungently pointedly drove home the nuisance value of delay.

One of such key speakers was Mr. Aaron Munetsi of South African Airways (SAA). Although Munetsi had, rather candidly, confessed: "Workshops alone cannot elevate your businesses to the desired levels of profitability; the only thing that makes the difference is how you address yourself, looking forward," the exercise, nonetheless, turned out very useful in the inspiration it invoked and in the probability that it galvanized many into action, after Mr. Munetsi declared: "It’s either you are quick, or you’re dead."

According to this speaker, speed of execution is of the essence, if the tourism practitioner wants to keep his head above water. Hear Munetsi: "To be is to do; and to do is to do now, because tomorrow may never come. Plans are useless, unless put into action immediately, because yesterday’s things (plans) may soon become irrelevant."

Quoting author and former CEO of Intel, Andy Grove, Munetsi stressed the need to move fast because "sooner than later, something fundamental in your business world will change."
Take Nigeria for instance: When the South African first set foot here in 1998, there were 11 airlines, including Nigeria Airways: "Now, there are 23 airlines," he observed. This translates as stiffer competition.

There were other reminiscences: For example, Mrs. Margaret Ekerete, proprietress of Network Travel Agency, recalled, "About 24 years ago, a Calabar-London-Calabar return ticket cost about N395. Today, a Calabar-Lagos-Calabar ticket, on its own, is probably going to cost you N36, 000."

We had a personal experience to add: "In the mid-1980s, I bought a British Caledonian Airways return ticket; for the following route, Lagos-London-New York-Detroit/Detroit-New York-London-Lagos. The fare for this trip was a paltry N960. "Today, to fly aboard British Airways from Lagos-London-New York-Detroit/Detroit-New York-Washington-Chicago-London-Lagos costs N456, 258."
Moreover, until the late 1980s, Nigerians could enter Britain without visa. This is not possible today. The long and short of this is, one’s dream of visiting a place would materialize earlier and be less expensive, if one moved fast.

Aside avoiding delay, Munetsi also advised that a company’s drive to create demand would be in vain, if plots to influence purchasing decisions did not complement that effort. This brought Munetsi and his audience to the need to define Marketing. So, what is marketing? The workshop participants were not exactly explicit on this, but there was unanimity as regards what marketing is not.

"Marketing," Munetsi continued, "is not about selling, it is about being able to position yourself in the mind of your customer. So that whenever they want something, it’s you they think about, first."
To influence consumers’ purchasing decisions, Munetsi suggested the choice and promotion of a destination or activity/event, competitive pricing, availability of product/service and adoption of a Unique Selling Point (USP), which, he stressed, is about offering value for money. In pushing competitive fees, the lecturer warned against describing one’s prices as cheap. "Always say less expensive," he taught.
Munetsi also enjoined tourism stakeholders to be careful what kind of relationship they forge with customers.

"The best situation," he opined, "is a win-win partnership." Win-win partnerships are based on trust and congruency of activities, said Munetsi, who added, "planning, make it a joint activity, sharing the calendar of events, marking the milestones in partnership and reviewing strategies as often as possible where necessary, will keep a company on the non-red path, Munetsi intoned.
There is no doubt that the more than 120 participants at the Nigerian-South African specialized workshop, which was organized by South Africa Tourism (SAT) in conjunction with SAA), came away with invaluable lessons.

Aside industry core participants, a number of surprise guests also attended the event. One of the surprise guests was Nigerian star musician Eedris Abdulkarim, who echoed his experience of a visit to South Africa and talked about his latest album, among others.

Eedris recounts thrill
Did you know that, if a lion was not hungry you could literally walk past it? A well-fed lion is less likely to attack a man because the animal was not in need of food.
How would you like to visit a place, where man and lion operate at close quarters? Who wouldn’t want to tour a place, where nature, man and wildlife can still co-habit in harmony? Truly, the average Nigerian would be fascinated by a place, where the sun rises at 3a.m!

Welcome to Mpumalanga! That’s where star artiste Eedris Abdulkarim went and his life has not been the same since that visit to Sabi-Sabi in Mpumalanga Province in the northeastern part of South Africa. Mpumalanga shares boundaries with four other South African provinces, namely Limpopo, Gauteng, Free State and Kwa-Zulu Natal in anti-clockwise order. Limpopo, Gauteng, Free State and Kwa-Zulu Natal lies North, West, South West and South East respectively of Mpumalanga. Furthermore, two countries border Mpumalanga.

These are Mozambique to the East and Swaziland to the South East.
In a chat with Travels, Eedris said he gathered that the etymology of Sabi-Sabi alludes to dread. Hear him: "Sabi-Sabi means ‘Be afraid.’ It’s a forest, which the first Prime Minister of South Africa, Mr. Kruger, suggested should be reserved exclusively for tourism. Oh, Sabi Sabi is a huge tourism attraction in Africa. Is it adventure you want? Is it a touch of nature? Go to Mpumalanga," Eedris enthused.
It is worth noting that Eedris never heard of the magic of Mpumalanga, until a friend, Mr. Alozie Uzoukwu, returned from the South African resort with enchanting tales of the charms of a jungle, where man and beast share one space.

For first-hand experience, the musician had set out to discover Mpumalanga, too. Now, Eedris says, "every Nigerian should visit Mpumalanga." Interestingly, Eedris’s opinion dovetails with the claim of South Africa Tourism (SAT) CEO, Mr. Moeketsi Mosola, that, "Based on our brand tracking research, visitors to South Africa continue to show high levels of satisfaction with our tourism offering." Mosola believes such impressions "bodes well for the future growth of our industry and our status as FIFA 2010 World Cup hosts entrenches our status as a capable and accessible destination."

South Africa might be a capable destination but countless Nigerians raised doubts about its accessibility during the workshop, where participant after participant complained of difficulty getting a visa.
It is worth noting that as part of its mission “to develop and implement a world-class international tourism marketing strategy for South Africa,” SAT promised to “Remove all obstacles to tourism growth.” Sadly, this body has largely failed in removing visa obstacles, which make it impossible for more Nigerians to visit South Africa. As Munetsi, expectedly, explained; SAT has to kowtow to the judgement of Interior Ministry officials.

Lookout for latest album by Eedris
A former member of the musical group Remedies, Eedris has three albums to his credit. These are Pa.s.s (Pain, stress and success), Mr. Lecturer and Jaga-Jaga. Each of these recordings proved a big hit, especially with Nigerians, where everyone is aware of sexual harassment and other forms of corruption on various campuses. Eedris strongly condemned these vices in Mr. Lecturer.

Interestingly, the popularity of Mr. Lecturer would turn out a child’s play, compared with the artiste’s third and mega-hit album, Jaga-Jaga, where Eedris lamented the frayed state of Nigeria and by extrapolation, the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo-led PDP-controlled government’s failure, incompetence, inability and unwillingness to curb crime, fix roads and provide jobs.

Speaking on Jaga-Jaga, which evidently gets Obasanjo’s goat, Eedris declared: "The ex-president made me a super-star. I commend positive efforts and condemn negative ones. I am a critic, but Nigerians now see that my criticism of Obasanjo’s government was well founded. This is why 10.2 million Nigerian youths voted for me to represent them in the Olympic Torch Relay in 2004.
"The voters included distinguished personalities like Prof. Pat Utomi, Prof. Dora Akunyili, Kanu Nwankwo, Segun Odegbami and Larry Izamoje. There were about 150 other individuals in Nigeria that participated in that poll," the artiste recalled.

If Jaga-Jaga surpassed his wildest imagination as a creative and marketing success, Eedris opined his forthcoming album, The King is back, would dwarf Jaga-Jaga, as regards those parameters.
Eedris again: "The king is back is due for launch in three months time but believe it or not, the record has already sold about 560,000 copies."

With success and more success after each album, Eedris is now trying his hands at other projects. "We just came up with a new TV series called Monster Musique, a network programme on all the channels." Apart from this TV series, we are also into other projects, including an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign.

About Network Travels and Briton in love with Nigeria
Another participant we sought a chat with after the workshop was a Briton, who has lived in Nigeria for 35 years. Interestingly, the lady, Mrs. Margaret Ekerete, would rather be a Nigerian citizen, whereas countless natives would literally give an arm to become nationals of other countries.
Mrs. Ekerete is founder and Managing Director of Network Travels Limited. Ekerete said Network, a travel agency, was established in the Cross River State capital, Calabar, 24 years ago. She later moved the hub to Eket in Akwa Ibom.

The lady, who originally hailed from Yorkshire, lamented that the present day scenario of airlines reducing or eliminating commission means that one has to now provide the highest level of service to justify the cost to customers.

Ekerete, who first touched down in Nigeria in 1973, actually started out with children’s educational toys business. Her enterprise, then located in Calabar’s State Housing Estate, was named The Family Shop. Unfortunately, the import license policy of the then military regime, which was more of racketeering than anything else, saw to the closure of the children’s educational aid shop, as it did countless other legitimate businesses, this writer mused. Before the toyshop folded up, Ekerete had by sheer luck, added another line of business to her kitty.

It all began with a search by the Dutch carrier KLM for an office in Nigeria’s famed Canaan City, Calabar. That probe ended, when KLM and Mrs. Ekerete struck a deal, which culminated in the use of a corner of The Family Shop as KLM Consulate. Aside KLM, the British Caledonian Airways also entered the picture, when Ekerete’s company was appointed their General Sales Agent in Nigeria. "Network Travels Limited," the lady enthused, thus "became the first and only General Sales Agency for British Caledonian and later for British Airways (BA), until the 14-month ban of BA operation into Nigeria in 1997."

Consequent upon that ban, Network Travels metamorphosed into an IATA Agent, said Ekerete, who added that her outfit currently has branches in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Uyo.