World Tourism Day 2026: NATOP trains members on AI, digital tourism marketing

By Ezurike Ugochukwu 

The Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) has marked the 2026 World Tourism Day with a capacity-building programme focused on artificial intelligence (AI), digital tourism marketing and destination promotion, as part of efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of tour operators in Nigeria.

The South-West Zone of the association brought together nearly 200 tour operators at Ziba Beach Resort, Lagos, for training on the application of AI to tour operations, content creation and digital marketing, while other zones marked the celebration with tourism awareness and destination promotion activities.

The programme was organised in line with the 2026 World Tourism Day theme, “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism,” with NATOP using the occasion to expose members to emerging digital tools and encourage them to adapt to the changing tourism landscape.

Speaking at the event, NATOP President, Hajia Bolaji Mustapha, said the decision to combine the celebration with training was aimed at equipping members with the skills required to promote Nigerian destinations and grow their businesses in the digital era.

According to her, tour operators must understand how to deploy different AI tools to improve their businesses, create better content and market destinations more effectively.

“We follow the theme and blend with the current situation. Let’s do the training so that we attach it to World Tourism Day with the theme, and achieve something while also celebrating,” she said.

Mustapha said the training would help operators produce stronger digital content capable of telling the stories of Nigerian destinations and presenting them to a wider audience.

She stressed that tour operators could no longer afford to remain outside the digital revolution, particularly as content creators were increasingly influencing how destinations and tourism experiences were marketed.

She said: “As tour operators who are willing to tell the good story of Nigeria, we need to bring ourselves up to speed and align with the digital revolution. Let everybody go digital.

“We also see content creators taking our business, so we want to align with what they do. We are the ones who understand the business and we will be able to tell the story better, so that anybody coming to Nigeria will be able to discover Nigeria with the experts.”

The NATOP president also explained the choice of Ziba Beach Resort as the venue for the South-West celebration, saying the association traditionally links its World Tourism Day activities to a tourism destination.

She said the resort provided an opportunity for members not only to undergo training but also to experience and assess a Nigerian tourism facility they could subsequently promote to clients.

“We always attach World Tourism Day to a tourism site. If you look at this whole area and this community, that’s why we see that Ziba is a tourism site,” Mustapha said.

She added that the resort’s newly launched third phase offered another opportunity for tour operators to inspect its facilities and understand how to package and market the destination.

According to her, the exercise was also intended to correct misconceptions about the resort’s name and demonstrate that attractive tourism destinations exist within Nigeria.

“We will use this opportunity to look at their rooms, look at how we can sell this destination and showcase it, to show that the resort is actually in Nigeria, not Zanzibar. By using the place, we would kill two birds with one stone,” she said.

Also speaking, NATOP Vice President, South-West, and Chairman of the zone’s World Tourism Day Organising Committee, Mrs Wonuola Olatunde-Lamidi, said the training was necessary because many operators still needed to strengthen their understanding of the fundamentals of tour operations.

She identified tour packaging as one of the areas where operators required greater capacity, stressing that professional competence was essential to the growth of the industry.

“Many don’t understand the foundation of what it is to create a tour package. And when you have people that are not well-trained in an industry, the industry will not grow,” Olatunde-Lamidi said.

She said stronger professional capacity would also improve the earning power of operators and enable them to build sustainable businesses.

Olatunde-Lamidi, who said she had spent 16 years in the industry and co-runs Diamonds and Pearls Travels with her husband, explained that professional development had helped the company evolve from a conventional travel agency into a Destination Management Company (DMC).

She said effective destination marketing could influence tourists’ decisions on where to visit, giving tour operators an important role in determining how Nigerian destinations are perceived and consumed.

According to her, operators can influence destination choices by effectively marketing the attractions, experiences and benefits available at particular locations.

Beyond the South-West programme, NATOP extended its World Tourism Day activities to other parts of the country.

In Abuja, the FCT and Northern Zone, in collaboration with Naija Adventurers, organised a Tourism Awareness Walk and Hike to the Centre of Nigeria, combining physical activity with tourism promotion and awareness.

The South-South Zone also marked the occasion with a destination tour and other activities designed to commemorate World Tourism Day and promote tourism within the region.

The nationwide activities reflected NATOP’s emphasis on combining celebration with practical industry development, using World Tourism Day to expose members to tourism destinations while equipping them with skills relevant to the evolving digital marketplace.

At Ziba Beach Resort, participants also toured the facility, inspected its accommodation and other tourism offerings, and had time to unwind after the training.