Bantaba, a travel and tourism show for stakeholders that hit the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) space of Nigeria, half of a decade ago, with its debut in Abuja then Port Harcourt is making a debut in the Gambia where it got it coinage from.
Mr Ikechi Uko, the organiser, Akwaaba Africa Travel Market, , a parent travel show to Bantaba, Abuja Jabamah and Accra Weizo disclosed to Travelpulse&MICE in an interview recently, describing the move as a welcome development.
According to Uko, “The Gambia has come to terms with us on the need to have Bantaba hosted in their country. Yes! Bantaba is going back to the Gambia where it originated from.
“The move to consider the Gambia came after a long time talk and soliciting, and four weeks ago after seeing the serious in them; I agreed that I will do an event there. They have commissioned a working committee and they are already working on it.
“The first time I was called upon for the bid I refuse and they persisted and when I found out that everybody, the big players in the tourism sectors have agreed that they goofed during my past engagement and accept it was an error on their part, I decided to give in to their request.
“But apart from that, I don’t blame them because it is the same thing that is happening everywhere. I thing I do, everyone thinks that it is easy to come do without putting into consideration all the strategic planning, sacrifices, financial implications and risks involved in it and they just jump at it. And eventually if they do it, I will just cut them off for such attitude and allow them to go on,
“ so for the Gambia, after five years of allowing them to do their thing, the stakeholders then had a meeting and agreed, ‘look we are better off with Ikechi, let bring him to do what he knows how to do best.
“ I have done it in the past for the Gambia where their tourists arrival increased within a short period of strategic planning which created air connectivity and drove of tourists to the Gambia. And again I have started the talk with some airlines, two to be precise, which has agreed to operate on the Gambia route.
“One our side we have reached an advance stage with our contacts but waiting to for the Gambia to conclude with the working committee.”
Speaking on what will be the faith of the tourism and travel stakeholders in Port Harcourt who got the feel of the garden city edition of Bantaba and how it has brought hope to the people of the River State, Uko said the state did not appreciate the effort put together to host Banataba in Port Harcourt where the event brought some of the biggest tourism authorities in the world to the state, in the likes of Dubai Tourism, South African Tourism, stakeholders from Ghana, Benin among other experts.
“None of the state tourism apparatus or even the government representation was felt, and if I must confess to you we spent over N5 million without getting anything. The little we got was use to offset the bill of the international speaker we use for the e-marketing seminar.”
Uko made his clear commitment to assist any state that requires their expertise, adding that “we kept on getting invitations from countries across the world, demanding to partner with us or wanting us to create a tourism-driven event for them.
“Bantaba has been designed to be a mobile event which can be schedule to take place according to the region or countries tourism calendar.”
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