High travel costs remain a major challenge to intra-African tourism, with some travellers finding international trips cheaper than visiting destinations within the continent.
Esperanza Adjei, Group Sales and Marketing Manager, Alisa Hotels Group said this on the sidelines of the 22nd Akwaaba African Travel Market in Lagos.
Adjei said the issue was increasingly being raised by Nigerian travel agents.
“We see that rate is a significant problem.
“They talk about how it’s cheaper to go international than do intra-Africa because of the prices,” she said.
She said Alisa Hotels had reviewed its rates in response to the concerns, with Nigerian tour operators receiving more preferred rates than some corporate agents in England.
“Nigerian tour operators even have more preferred rates compared to some of our corporate agents in England,” she said.
She said the group had also noticed growing interest from the Nigerian travel market, reflected in inquiries from travel agents.
“That tells us there’s an interest for the Ghanaian market,” she said.
Earlier, during a stakeholders’ engagement, the hotel presented its hospitality and tourism offerings to Nigerian travel professionals.
The presentation focused on its properties in Accra and Tema and options designed to combine accommodation with sightseeing experiences.
Alisa Hotel North Ridge in Accra has 235 rooms and suites, more than 14 conference rooms and a 1,000-capacity dome.
The property also has restaurants, bars, a health club, spa, business centre, tennis court and swimming pool.
The hotel said its North Ridge property caters largely to business travellers and also serves leisure visitors through packages developed with tour operators.
For Nigerian visitors, the packages combine accommodation with transportation and visits to attractions across Ghana.
These places include markets, malls, beaches and the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, as well as Shai Hills and a chocolate factory.
Alisa Hotel Tema has 50 rooms and seven meeting rooms, with its largest meeting facility accommodating up to 400 people.
The property also has a restaurant, sky bar, health club, spa, gym, executive lounge, tennis court and an all-day dining restaurant.
Its Tema package includes visits to a chocolate factory, the Ghana Textile Printing facility, beaches and the Shai Hills area.
The hotel group said it had operated for 25 years and hosted more than 15,000 events, including this year’s African Union Summit.
The summit attracted about 1,000 delegates, including 20 heads of state, 97 government ministers and 97 health experts.
Adjie said the hotel group had also engaged the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies, with expectations of growth in travel and tourism business from Nigeria.
She said corporate organisations were incentivising their employees with holidays, while individual corporate travellers were also seeking opportunities to take breaks.
“So, there’s a lot of visibility, there’s a lot of interest, people are making inquiries,” she said.
Alisa Hotels’ approach reflects the broader challenge facing intra-African tourism: interest in African destinations may exist, but the cost of getting there can influence where travellers kultimately choose to go.
The engagement at Akwaaba therefore provided an opportunity for hospitality businesses and Nigerian travel professionals to examine how pricing, partnerships and travel packages could influence movement within the continent.
