NATOP Marks World Tourism Day With Multi-Zone Celebration, AI Training
The Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) has commemorated the 2026 World Tourism Day with a series of activities across its various zones, combining capacity building, technology, destination promotion and domestic tourism.
In the South-West Zone, nearly 200 tour operators gathered at Ziba Beach Resort in Lagos for a special training programme focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application in tourism. The training was designed to equip operators with digital tools to improve their businesses, market destinations and tell Nigeria’s tourism stories more effectively.
In Abuja, the FCT and Northern Zone, in collaboration with Naija Adventurers, marked the occasion with a Tourism Awareness Walk and Hike to the Centre of Nigeria, while the South-South Zone celebrated with a destination tour and other activities.
The celebrations were held in line with this year’s World Tourism Day theme, “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism.”
Speaking during the AI training at Ziba Beach Resort, NATOP President, Hajia Bolaji Mustapha, said the programme was designed to help members understand how to use digital platforms and AI tools to grow their businesses and promote Nigerian destinations.
According to her, the association deliberately combined the training with the World Tourism Day celebration to ensure members gained practical knowledge while also celebrating the significance of tourism.
“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 we have achieved something while also celebrating,” she said.
Mustapha said the training would help tour operators create better digital content and use AI to tell compelling stories about destinations.
She also explained that Ziba Beach Resort was selected as the venue because NATOP traditionally links its World Tourism Day activities with tourism sites.
“We always attach World Tourism Day to a tourism site. If you look at this whole area and this community, that is why we see that Ziba is a tourism site,” she said.
According to her, the newly launched third phase of the resort provided an opportunity for members to explore the facility, understand its tourism potential and learn how to market it as a Nigerian destination.
“We want to explore and, of course, use this opportunity to look at their rooms and see how we can sell this destination and showcase that the resort is actually in Nigeria, not Zanzibar. By using the place, we would kill two birds with one stone,” she added.
The NATOP president also urged tour operators to embrace digital technology, stressing that operators must adapt to changing trends in the tourism industry.
“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,” Mustapha said.
She noted that the growing influence of content creators in the tourism space should encourage professional tour operators to strengthen their digital presence rather than remain on the sidelines.
“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,” she said.
Also speaking, NATOP Vice President, South-West, and Chairman of the World Tourism Day Organising Committee for the zone, Mrs Wonuola Olatunde-Lamidi, said the decision to focus on training was driven by the need to strengthen the professional capacity of operators.
She explained that some members still needed to understand the fundamentals of tour operation, particularly how to develop attractive and commercially viable tour packages.
“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,” she said.
Olatunde-Lamidi, who has spent 16 years in the industry and co-runs Diamonds and Pearls Travels with her husband, said professional training had played an important role in the growth of the company from a conventional travel agency into a Destination Management Company (DMC).
She said tour operators could influence travel decisions by effectively marketing destinations and communicating their value to potential visitors.
“You may not realise that, as tour operators, you can actually decide where people go. You can make people go to a particular destination by marketing it and letting them know the benefits of that destination,” she said.
The World Tourism Day programme also featured a tour of Ziba Beach Resort, giving participants the opportunity to explore the facility, assess its tourism offerings and unwind as part of the celebration.
The multi-zone activities underscored NATOP’s commitment to strengthening the capacity of tour operators, promoting domestic tourism and leveraging technology to position Nigeria’s tourism destinations for greater visibility and patronage.
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