With success stories in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda, Icon Hotels and Resorts Africa, a pan-african hospitality chain, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya, has offered quality skills and professionalism in managing hotels and turning them around. From its East African stronghold, the brand is fast expanding even to West Africa with the berthing of Icon Hotels and Resorts Nigeria, its subsidiary and in other countries in the region. In this interview, Adetope Kayode, CEO, Icon Hotels and Resorts Nigeria, the management company of Ibom Icon Hotels and Golf Resort Uyo, speaks to Obinna Emelike on the vision and strength of the Icon brand, feats at Ibom Icon Hotel since taking over, plans for the hotel and the Akwa Ibom State tourism, offerings, safety, among other related issues. Excerpt.
What is the Icon hotel chain all about?
The Icon Hotels and Resorts Africa is a pan-african hospitality chain based out of Nairobi, Kenya, with properties and interests across Africa. We are strong in East Africa and we are beginning to grow more aggressively in West Africa. Icon has worked over the years in countries like Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda. In West Africa, we are working in Nigeria, Gambia, Senegal, Cameroon, Benin Republic and Ghana.
These are where we have active projects or managed assets. The whole idea of the brand Icon is more or less a movement that is targeted at the emergence of hospitality professionalism in the African industry. Kenya has a very long history of expertise in the hospitality industry that dates back several decades. From that training in professionalism, the business has arrived. You would find a lot of training institutions and Kenyan experts exporting talent across the continent and generally pushing the standard to the next level.
That is exactly what is happening in Nigeria, today. The Nigerian hospitality industry has come of age. It is about time the experience we have cultivated over the years gets channeled into actively managing our prized assets by ourselves. This particular asset we are managing used to be a western asset. It is now called the Ibom Icon. We have rebranded to Ibom Icon Hotel and Golf Resort in Uyo. We are taking creativity in terms of product offerings, and service delivery to another level. We are showcasing African hospitality unashamedly and in an authentic manner.
No doubt, taking off durimg the pandemic was very difficult. How were you able to do that and still delivered good performance?
We had been in Uyo since February 2020; just before the pandemic started hitting hard. We were here throughout the lockdown from February to October, when we took over the as
set. Then, we spent time going through every fabric of the property. There was nothing to do anyway. So, we studied, understood the property and its challenges. We started to create rapid response initiatives so that post-pandemic when we deploy them, we would have very sharp growth trajectory.
We spent a lot of time brainstorming and creating new ways of hospitality for the post-pandemic. One of the things was to have a very carefully thought-out covid-19 protocol in place for guests’ safety and awareness. We started, for each guest checkout and disinfecting rooms. We started implementing more contactless hospitality solutions, given the available technology. There are a lot of initiatives we put in place, which have now given our guests comfort. We are now attracting events from a lot of groups, including government officials, because they know we pay attention to detail when it comes to health and safety.
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Akwa Ibom seems to be taking the lead in tourism across Nigeria going by the realities on ground. How is the Icon brand going to key into the opportunities or complement them?
There were a number of masterstrokes that have brought Uyo to where it is today. Again, the location of the city is very good, in terms of road links to other cities in the South East and South South regions. Beyond the facts of its location, aviation was the biggest masterstroke. Tourism thrives with ease of access, volume access and everything needs to work seamlessly. With the advent of Ibom Air, the vision that they took is a stroke of genius. The vision and capacity of that airline is expanding. The whole idea is to make Uyo become a regional hub for aviation. That has a huge impact on tourism and it has been felt dramatically. At the resort, now, we get large groups from all over the country. The reason they are able to easily come here is that Uyo is serene, peaceful, safe and importantly, it is easy to get to. Within 30 minutes, you are at the resorts, from the airport. It is working excellently.
There is also the aspect of infrastructure. The infrastructure here is topnotch. From any angle of this state to the next, you can get anywhere within two hours. The roads are pretty good quality. There are streetlights everywhere. When you come to a place like Uyo, you also have places to go. You can get there within an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes. So, it makes people spread the word. There are a lot of sights and sounds in the state. The government, over the years, has done a few things right. The present administration has done a lot too. One of the major contributions of this administration is that it has improved security. Uyo is one of the safest cities to live in, and that makes people want to come here.
What are the exciting packages you have for guests?
This hotel is a platform for the growth of tourism in Akwa Ibom. It is not just about filling our rooms. What we have been able to do since we have been here is put together very attractive packages. Except through a travelogue option, Nigerians don’t get to benefit from all-inclusive packages. What we have done is to create allinclusive packages for our guests and tour packages to places within Akwa Ibom, such as Ikot Abasi, Itu; where you have Mary Slessor’s life and missionary work, among other places. We are also leveraging on the blessed geography that Akwa Ibom has. The state is blessed with beautiful waterways and the resort has a jetty and marina purposely designed as hub for leisure activities on the waterways. We are revamping that because over the years, it has been neglected. We recognize the potential of the Marina as a catalyst for tourism here. We are also creating a boat club, a bush bar, and completely transforming it to a tourism attraction. From the Marina, you can go to Tom Shore Island, which has a lot of fauna and sea creatures. By creating opportunities for people to go from here to places of interests, we are creating a robust experience for people to completely get a feel of Akwa Ibom like never before. You can do things like fishing, experience local riverine culture, palm-wine, among others.
Maintenance has always been a big issue in running hotels in Nigeria, how is Icon going to be different in this regard?
As of when we took over the Marina area, it was overgrown with weeds, the jetty was dilapidated and the slip way was not in use. Basically, the entire facility was in a state of neglect. We utilized local know-how to clear the entire Marina of weeds. For the first time in years, you could see the entire water mass. That alone made people want to visit the Marina, spend time at the clubhouse and even to take pictures. Stage two is refurbishing the jetty, refloating the sunken walkways, clearing the slippery and we are refurbishing the Marina clubhouse. We are creating a zip line across the water, setting up a canopy walk. We are transforming that area for a hotspot for tourists.
We are creating partnerships with specialists in marine engineering to operate the boats and to do proactive maintenance there. We are partnering with experts to keep that facility top notch. We are also revamping the hotel. We have started with new designs for the rooms. We are also redesigning the banquet area for the hotel. In terms of the backbone facilities of the hotel, we are specifying and refurbishing the entire system, from generators to laundry. At the end of this exercise we would have a brand new facility.
How long is this relationship going to last? Long term. Are there plans to expand beyond Uyo?
We have an aggressive growth trajectory. We are able to achieve significant growth management. Outside of Nigeria, we also have aggressive growth targets as well. We would grow aggressively in Nigeria over the next couple of years.
What do you think the Nigeria needs to do to boost the recovery of domestic tourism?
For Nigeria to lead the recovery, some elements should be in place. Nigeria’s biggest challenge is insecurity in certain parts of the country. So, the first thing we should address is security. There was a time where people confidently drove to different parts of the country. Personally, I have done that journey to Sokoto and beyond many times, while growing up. Now, I can’t do that. As a country, we have to address our security situation. There are no quick-fix solutions to that issue. It took a mix of issues to get us to where we are as a country.
There are still places in this country that has been safe enough to encourage tourism, like Uyo. Now, in those safe places, we have to preserve that reputation. Also, we have to layer attraction. I don’t believe in the adage that you should ‘ build it and they would come’.
You need to understand what to build to make them come. There is that aspect of conceptualization of experiences because tourism is all about selling experiences. In line with that, we launched ‘One experiences, a lifetime of memories’, an exciting programme for guests. As a country, we need to create such experiences. We have them already, but they are not optimized to leave lasting impressions on visitors. We need to strategically think about upgrading the tourist hotspots we have in Nigeria, like Osogbo, Ikogosi, Idanre Hills and so much more. Almost every state has something of value to a tourist.
But when you go to these places and you don’t even have good roads, comfortable hotels, nice means of transportations, tour guides and tailored experiences, you cannot leave an impression. The kind of multiplier effect it would have on the economy is huge. Everyone would benefit, from the palm wine tapper, to the transporters, to the hoteliers. We as a country have to learn to teach ourselves to catch fish and not feed fish to the needy. It is at that point that we would get the full benefit of the exclusive growth in tourism.
