Ahead of the 2016 Calabar Carnival, the managing director of Cross River State Tourism Bureau, Clement Umina has said the state was upping its tourism options by posting a forthcoming pageantry as a marketing tool. The aim is to use the show in achieving two main objectives: draw attention to people, while winners of the pageantry are used as advocacy tools and brand ambassadors of the state.
“It is beauty and brain; the winners are trained to talk about what they stand for; like today we are talking of climate change, they can talk effectively on this for the state and world at large,” Umina said.
In an interview with Business South-South/ South East in Calabar, the Tourism Bureau boss said that over 30 countries were expected in Calabar with the ‘Miss Africa Show,’ at a time the government was talking of repositioning the State’s economy that is service-driven and based on tourism.
He said people would easily get to know about the state’s tourism sites and attractions through pageantry, the key reason the government was organizing the forthcoming Miss Africa Show pageantry.
Umina said there would be lots of photo shoots with the pageants of the state’s attractive places and the photographs produced are used as marketing collaterals; adding that most people are inclined to appreciating beautiful and good looking things. First step is to get the attraction, and get people to look twice on our tourism potentials; that is what the governor is doing,” he added.
On the proposed cost of pageantry put at about N500 million, he said it would be got through “brand equity in tourism,” where sponsors of the event would foot the bills. “In brand equity, you have to up the product brand itself, so that the offers that from sponsors of the product would be higher. It is a marketing strategy that many people do not know. In technical terms, what the governor is doing is investing in marketing. But unfortunately most times people do not get to know when they are recouping on investment. Take the carnival as example, today the carnival is running itself with money from sponsors, with lots of unquantifiable benefits,” the tourism bureau boss said.
He informed that there are multiple possible impact with the pageant such as job creation for people from the preparatory stages to the events and after. He advised that Cross River people should disabuse their minds on negative issues, and look at the positive aspect, which he said was quite high.
Umina said the state Tourism Bureau has continued to modify the aspect of the beauty pageant, with addition of Cross Riverians’ culture and ways of life, which he said is relevant to the people; adding that the theme for the pageantry is ‘Climate Change,’ which gives people the opportunity to know more about climate change. Tourism has the highest value chain and highest job provider in the world, he stated.
He advised people of the state to begin to think of how they can take advantage of the government’s tourism drive. “We are not driving tourism by Cross Riverians but we are driving tourism with people who come from outside to come and experience it. When people come: what do they need, how do they enjoy themselves and how do you make them comfortable; these are job opportunities we are creating. Look at the Miss Africa photo shoot, large number of people will come and participate; and this adds value to our economy.”
