Virtual Tourism

The Nigerian tourism industry, though still very green and untapped, is an investor’s goldmine. Those who have ventured into it, though tough at times they say, still can’t get enough of the beauty and financial opportunities it poses, as things unfold.

One of the few with such foresight is the CEO of Skyview Communication, Mr Femi Lawson. Getting this very busy man was one herculin task I was determined not to give up on. Finally, it was the D day, and I met humility with a big heart in person. Filled with wisdom, and an authority in his line of business, he made my day. Enjoy.

Q: What is Skyview all about?

Ans: We are into communications, media brand and idea innovation. And we have a sister company called the Skyview virtual tourism, that is into promoting and marketing tourism virtually.

Q: Knowing the industry is virgin, why did you go into it?

Ans: We have played in a number of Sectors, we had the privilege of working at the Nigerian drum festival, in 2016 organised by the Ogun state government. Our responsibility was to develop an event that would transform and sell Ogun state as a tourism destination in Nigeria, and that opened our eyes to so many local ecological asset, eco- tourism assets that we have, and also to a lot of problems, Nigerians don’t even know they have these assets, and if they don’t know, who will market it to them? Nigerians go to other countries to see what they have, not knowing they even have something richer. Then we asked ourselves what we can do to re- introduce Nigerian tourism destinations, we know that by putting Nigerian tourism destinations on VR, we can wet their appetite enough for them to want to come down.

Q: What stage would you say the tourism Sector is now?

Ans: You know it’s a growing sector, it’s still very green, and has a lot of potentials, that’s the view foreigners have because they don’t even know what you have. some multinationals are aware of some of these places but it’s not enough because it’s not well communicated, moreover the investment in that Sector is very low and because of this employment is very low. this industry has the capacity of giving a lot of youths jobs and engaging them.it’s a connecting industry that has a lot of entrepreneurs as low as the DJ, the mc, caterer, the transport guys, etc.

Q: You mentioned TIDA, what is it about?

Ans: When we saw the quantum of opportunities in the industry, as a proud Nigerian, we were challenged and we felt we should be able to make impact, so we introduced [TIDA] Tourism Innovation and Development Advantage. While doing that we launched the Virtual Tourism and the Tourism Entrepreneurial Academy. Why this is so is because virtual tourism is meant to market these destinations, now when you have that market, who deals with them? You need a team of people that when you go anywhere in the world, they would be the ones that will market the places and when they do, who sells the ticket, who brings them from the airport? Who tells them the best hotels to stay, who takes them around? That is why we birthed the academy, which is meant to teach the Nigerian youth about the value chain in the industry, you can even decide to train yourself as a tour guide, you don’t need to say you don’t have a job, once you know the history of that community, you can tell the story, the indigenes can benefit also by just recognising the tourism potentials of their communities and tapping into them.

These are things done outside the country, so why can’t we do the same? If you look at the whole of Lagos, we hardly have one tour bus, that’s an opportunity, anybody can do that business, it’s so interesting that you can pick only Victoria Island as your destination, that is what we want to achieve with TIDA and the academy.

Q: Is the government involved in all of these?

Ans: We are a nation that depend too much on government, my own conclusion, though the Lagos state government have been very supportive, they were part of the TIDA conference, and they have been very supportive even with the virtual tourism, and NTDC endorsed both the TIDA and the virtual tourism. If we must get good results, we need the help of the state government because all the sites in Nigeria belong to a community, and the community exists in a state, so we are working with Ogun state government and Lagos state on this project and we believe other states will join in future.

Q: What is virtual tourism all about?

Ans: Like I explained initially virtual tourism makes you experience Nigerian site on a spot, where ever you are in the world, and you visit any of our booths there, you can travel to Ondo while standing there, You can visit Olumo rock while standing there, you can see what Olumo looks like, it’s an avenue to feel, but it’s a short preview, because what its meant to do is get you interested enough to want to visit the place. It’s a 360, 3D video, that can give you that same feel where you can look around 360. So virtual tourism is meant to promote and market destinations in Nigeria and Africa.

Q: How did you discover VR?

Ans: We were at a strategy section and needed to sell a thing, we decided to use the VR glasses to sell it since that is what is in town, but then we had more of 90⁰ than 180⁰ camera, so a lot of research was done and at some point the camera we wanted to use was launched the same year, so we had to pay for something we had not seen, and being a new technology we had to deal with editing, logistics of travelling and having to convince the owners to give us rights , so a lot of work has been put into it.

We as a company also discovered that there are billions of dollars in the tourism industry that has not been well showcased to the world, so we felt this is a good way, Videos speak faster than text or even pictures, people are moved by what they see and getting this on video will prick their interest faster to want to visit.

Q: So how can the VR be accessed?

Ans: For now, it’s still very limited because a lot of work is going on by God’s grace, in the first quarter of next year, you should see virtual tourism booths around, and one can walk in and experience it.

Q: Where are the places you have in mind?

Ans: We are talking about strategic places like the airports, hotels,museum, shopping malls, not just in Lagos but in Abuja, Port-Harcourt to start with, and move to some countries in and outside Africa.