Category: Travels on Saturday

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission has said that the introduction of family pilgrimage is to entrench and teach value orientation and re-orintation.

This disclosure was made when he led his sensitization team to the governor of the state, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, in Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna.

Addressing the governor, the NCPC boss said it has been observed that parents nowadays do not have time to stay and pray with their children and inculcate the fear of God in them and that is why the level of crime in the society is on the increase. He told the governor that with the introduction of the Family Pilgrimage, NCPC now operates three three pilgrimage exercises in a year.

Earlier on, the NCPC boss eulogised the governor for his ability to sustain religious harmony between the Christians and the Muslims in the state. He also praised the Governor for making fertilizers and tractors available at subsidized rates. This, he said, has encouraged massive participation in agriculture and engagement of youths in productive ventures.

Mr. Opara used the opportunity of the visit to present to the governor the 2013 pilgrimage package as approved by Mr. President and also to inform him that a total of 1000 seats had been allotted to Kaduna State. He equally told the Governor that the theme of this year’s pilgrimage is: “Pilgrimage, Tool for Moral and Spiritual Transformation”. This, he said, is to complement the transform agenda of Mr. President.

Responding, the governor thanked Mr. Opara and promised to sponsor the 1000 seats allotted to the state. He specially appreciated the NCPC for the introduction of the Family Pilgriamge. He said the high rate of crime and criminality among our youths is as a result of the embrace of foreign culture and values that are not destroying our value system.

The governor then called on the religious leaders not to relent in preaching family value orientation and also to continue to preach peace, unity and respect for each other’s religion among their followers.

In his conclusion, the governor promised to provide a bus for the commission and a piece of land for the building of the NCPC Zonal Office in Kaduna.

Earlier in the day, the NCPC boss had met with the leadership of CAN where he talked about the introduction of the family pilgrimage and the need for Christians to see pilgrimage as their own and not the prerogative of the government. He said the emphasis of the NCPC now is on self sponsorship, he then called on rich Christians and churches to compliment the efforts of the state and Local Governments in sponsoring pilgrims.

Airlines were forced to appease thousands of passengers whose travel plans were disrupted in the wake of the fire at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. According to reports from a Kenyan daily, airlines will dig into their cash boxes to provide alternative transport or compensation to passengers.

“There will be huge costs. Airlines cannot abandon their passengers. They will provide alternative transport and accommodation,” said the Kenya Association of Air Operators chief executive, E.K. Waithaka,

Kenya Airways diverted 1,080 passengers to Mombasa on Wednesday morning while 200 were taken from Mombasa to Nairobi by road. Emirates said it would provide free re-bookings.

The financial repercussions of the fire will extend to tourism and horticulture.

August is a peak month for international arrivals.

On the insurance front, APA Insurance, which provides cover for the Kenya Airports Authority, said it had sent a team to the airport. “We have sent loss adjustors to the site,” said APA chief operating officer Suresh Kumar in a statement.

“Jomo Kenyatta Airport has been a major problem for Kenya Airways and the aviation industry here,” said Standard Investment Bank analyst Eric Musau.

British Airways commercial manager for East and Central Africa, Mr George Mawadri, said: “There will be a huge ripple effect in the region because Nairobi is a link to many other cities on the continent.”

Domestic flights resumed in the afternoon and the airport cleared airlines to receive international arrivals through the domestic terminal from this morning.

Last Friday was fortuitous in the history of the tourism and the Nigerian hospitality industry. It was the day the Supreme Court put to rest the question of whose responsibility it was to register, grade and classify hospitality and tourism outfits in the country.

According to the Supreme Court judgment, this responsibility falls within the purview of the states. Hitherto, there had been a lingering face-off between the Federal Government and the Lagos State government on the issue. It all started with the law passed by the Lagos State House of Assembly and signed into law by the state governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola. The law is the Lagos State Hotel Licensing Law.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that only state houses of assemblies can make laws on tourism by licensing and grading hotels, restaurants, fast food outlets and other hospitality establishments.

The apex court presided over by Justice Suleiman Galadima held that the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, only empowers the National Assembly to regulate tourist traffic, a term which does not extend to hotel registration and licensing.

The court also validated both the Hotel Licensing Law of Lagos State (as amended) and the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Law of Lagos State and annulled the offending sections of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) Act.

The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Justice, approached the Supreme Court for the interpretation of the constitution on that. Lagos State position was that hotels and other tourism outfits registration was a residual matter on which the Federal Government of Nigeria has no Constitutional authority to legislate or pass laws.

According to the state, the only reference to tourism on the exclusive legislative list of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) is in item 60(d) which relates “to regulate tourist traffic” and that the intention here was to control immigration and monitor border formalities which was the exclusive preserver of the Federal Government.

On the strength of this, Lagos said the only valid legislation that regulates the licensing of hotels and other tourism or hospitality establishments operating in Lagos State is the Lagos State Hotel Licensing Law as amended in 2010.

If this was allowed to stand, it would rob the Federal Government the control of a very important part of the tourism industry, most especially the hospitality industry. Before the ruling, the NTDC had issued guidelines for both the hospitality industry and the other arms of the tourism operations. The NTDC believed that, according to the statutory law establishing it, it was part of its responsibilities to register, classify and grade all hospitality and tourism establishments, travel agencies and tour operators in Nigeria. Consequently, all owners of hospitality and tourism outfits were mandatorily required to register its business with the NTDC within 60 days of its commencement of operations. Every certificate of registration issued by the NTDC expires on the 31st day of December in the year of the issue of such a certificate, with renewals required on a year-to-year basis upon the payment of such renewal fees as may be prescribed by the NTDC.

The registration certificate issued by the NTDC must be conspicuously displayed on its business premises. There were fines and criminal penalties for individual owners and corporate bodies who failed to register their outfits with the NTDC.

That was the situation between 1992, when the decree establishing the NTDC was enacted, and July 12, when the Supreme Court ruled. Many states like Lagos, Edo, kano and Cross River kicked against the law, but the NTDC had the upper hands. The former NTDC boss, Mrs. Omotayo Omotosho, during her tenure embarked on the closure of some hotels in Lagos and Abuja in a bid to force them to comply, but not much was achieved. The same with the past regime at the NTDC headed by Otunba Segun Runsewe.

Runsewe was keen on registering, classifying and grading hospitality outfits in the country, but the legal challenges made these difficult. The ruling has put the fight to rest.

But the Supreme Court’s ruling has created a bigger problem for the tourism industry, especially the ability of the Federal Government in the past to co-ordinate tourism activities in the country. The Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) President, Chief Samuel Alabi, who said he said it far back in 2002 that the NTDC has no basis in a democratic setting.

He said in the past the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation could summon the state commissioners for a meeting and the commissioners could decide not to go. And that with the ruling, the NTDC was now like a mere department in the Federal Capital Development Authority.

Reacting to the judgement, Commissioner for Tourism and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr. Disun Holloway, commended the Supreme Court for upholding the tenets of federalism, adding that the judgement would eradicate multiplicity of taxations and regulations, thereby enabling states to take charge and properly plan for the hospitality industry in their respective territories.

The question in the minds of many tourism and hospitality operators in the country is that with the legal interpretation by the Supreme Court that puts finality as to whose purview the registration, grading and classifying of tourism establishments falls , where does that leave them?

The biggest problem of hospitality outfits is that due to their visibility, the different arms of government see them as a ready source of revenue. Every day, the tourism outfits are faced with multiple taxation. For example, the hotels pay the value added tax in Lagos, and there is the additional consumption tax on the same product that the value added tax has been paid on. Both the states and council areas have a long list of taxes that the hospitality outfits are expected to settle. The fear is that with the new development, if no efforts are made to harmonise and streamline taxes payable by these outfits, they are going to face tough times in meeting with these multiple tax obligations.

Many believe that since the Supreme Court has declared the NTDC’s activities as regards registration, classification and grading of hospitality outfits as illegal, it is important that the states and local government areas dialogue with the hospitality and tourism outfits on the issue of taxes so that they would not be taxed out of business.

The positive thing from the ruling is that it is now easier for states to embark on the registration, classification and grading of these hospitality establishments. The days of self-rating by hotels is now a thing of the past. It will help the hospitality to grow and further boost the confidence of international hospitality chains to come to Nigeria.

For the NTDC, with the removal of the hotels from its control and supervision, the agency would now concentrate more on its co-mandate of developing tourist sites, promotion of the country as a tourism destination and marketing of country.

The recent report released by the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has shown that tourism is making positive impact all over the world. However, apart from the area of religious tourism where Nigeria is witnessing steady growth in the inbound tourist arrival, in other sectors like leisure and so on, no progress has so far been made. It is important that the NTDC do more.

Mark Smulian talked to

South African Tourism Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, about his dream of making an African e-visa regime a reality.

At the tip of the African continent, South Africa is a long way from most of the rest of the world, and it is, therefore, not really surprising that it does not function as a major regional hub.

But Tourism Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, wants to change that by encouraging carriers to look on Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport as the key “south–south” hub for the southern hemisphere, linking up the rest of Africa, South America and parts of Asia and Australia.

What is more, Minister van Schalkwyk has a big idea to encourage a leap forward in tourism volumes in South Africa and its neighbours – a pan- African e-visa.

If he can bring about a common e-visa area for southern Africa, the increased flows through Johannesburg could make the hub idea more viable. The country has increased in popularity as a tourism destination since the end of apartheid.

 

 

 

 

 

In 2011, according to Statistics South Africa, it received some 3 million foreign visitors arriving by air, mainly at OR Tambo, with a peak in December and January.

The most common points of origin for foreign visitors were the UK (420,483), followed by the US (287,614) and Germany (235,774).

No surprises there perhaps, but in seventh place was India on 90,367, followed by China with 84,862 arrivals, which suggests South Africa can expect more as those economies grow.

Of total visitors, 94.3% came as tourists, with business journeys accounting for only 2.2% of traffic, and transit passengers and students making up the remainder.

Traffic is dominated by resident carrier South African Airways (SAA) and to a lesser extent by its low-cost subsidiary Mango, followed by carriers such as British Airways.

But what South Africa and southern Africa continues to lack is a central hub for intra-regional travel, to foster tourism and business between the African states bordering South Africa, and van Schalkwyk hopes e-visas and the hub idea may break down this barrier.

His objective is to get rid of much of the bureaucratic hassle of travelling in southern Africa by having a common travel region for all its countries – rather like the European Union’s Schengen agreement. Van Schalkwyk says agreement is near on this becoming a reality.

First the good news. Van Schalkwyk, who has been Tourism Minister since 2004, says more than 50 carriers now fly to South Africa, against only 26 in the late 1990s, and that while “obviously a nation such as ours is a long-haul destination from almost everywhere in the world”, a managed liberalisation process has attracted airlines.

“It may sound an old-style philosophy, but we believe that more competition will drive down prices and provide more choices, which are good for a destination,” he tells Routes News.

Tourist arrivals increased by 10.5% in the first six months of this year and South Africa attracts some 4.25 million tourists a year, including those arriving by land, he says.

Van Schalkwyk thinks southern Africa as a whole could attract more visitors than it does and that complex visa rules imposed by most countries are a deterrent to this if people wish to visit more than one country.

“We believe the world should move to e-visas, and at the G20 heads of state meeting in Mexico all of them committed themselves to travel facilitation, but not everybody is there exactly at this moment,” he explains.

Van Schalkwyk says the process of getting a single visa for the southern part of the continent agreed upon is “only two countries away from it, and if we can convince them we are there”, he says.