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TINAPA: The Making of Africa’s Premier Business and Leisure Resort in Nigeria
22.01.2005
Business Day (Johannesburg)
The beautiful mountainous range amply qualifies for a scenery in a typical Hollywood movie. Adorned with lush green vegetation and light forests, which have been complimented by flow of the Calabar River, nature could not be more generous to the Adiabo community which lies about 30km in the outskirts of Calabar, the Cross River state capital in the Sout of Nigeria. Any visitor to this area leaves with an impression of land that has live in its full. It is no surprise therefore that the state Governor, Donald Duke made the choice of Adiabo community to host his dream eco-tourism project, the Tinapa Business and Leisure Resort.
The idea of Tinapa itself did not come in a day as it has been part of a long held plan by the Governor to harness the enormous tourism potentials of the state into economic benefits for the Government and people of the state. Duke, the State Governor told THISDAY that on assumption of office, his resolve was to focus on two key sectors of the economy namely; Agriculture because of its centrality as employer of over 80 per cent of the state's population and tourism, because of its potentials to launch the state into the comity of fast moving economies of Africa.
Duke's dream to transform Cross River into tourism wonderland crystallized into a solid idea sometime in 2003 when he appointed a team of experts and consultants from South Africa, Italy, China and Germany to conduct a study on the establishment of an integrated business and tourism resort. The committee submitted its report in the course of the year with a strong recommendation of the economic viability of the project. The adoption of the report led to a firm investment decision by the state government to embark on the project.
Following its incorporation, a ground breaking ceremony was performed in January 2004 during which Gitto Construction company, an Italian firm was contracted to kick-start the project especially site surveys and clearance, sand filling and primary access roads. .
FEATURES OF THE RESORT
As originally conceived, Tinapa Business Resort is not only ambitious, it is novel in the annals of the economic history of Nigeria and indeed Africa. The original idea, according to Duke, is to have an integrated business and tourism set up where visitors from both within and outside the country would have the opportunity to shop for goods of various kinds of international standard in a friendly environment which offers full leisure, thus achieving a perfect integration of serious business and leisure.
Duke displayed in the Government House Calabar disclosed that the Tinapa Business Resort would have among other facilities four emporiums of each 80,000m the size of three football fields) in the main bowl. These emporiums would have goods of various types which Nigerians hitherto travel to Dubai, Europe and other internationally recognized free trade zones to purchase.
Apart from the emporiums there would be several entertainment centres with facilities for cinemas, food courts, games arcade and other attractions.
In the plan also, at least two luxury hotels would be built. The first with 250 rooms to cater for accommodation needs of visitors and the second, a 300-rooom self-catering apartment hotel. Also in the leisure segment, an artificial of lake of 2km would be created to provide for boating by tourists. Other facilities to be put on in the complex include a huge water park, golf parks, numerous restaurants, a cultural village which shall have crafts, traditional dresses and other cultural items to offer and support services like sick bay, management offices, fire fighting centre etc.
In subsequent phases, the resort would have another hotel and massive conference complex, two luxury lodges, expanded leisure and entertainment facilities including water sports, quad biking, archery and expanded cultural and educational components including an aviary, Africa´s largest aquarium, a crocodile farm and primate rehabilitation centre among others.
Tinapa no doubt is an ambitious project. With estimated cost put at over $1 billion, it is clearly the biggest investment of its kind anywhere in Africa.. He hinged his optimism on the calculation that from the feasibility report, at least 3 million people were expected at the Tinapa annually
22.01.2005
Business Day (Johannesburg)
The beautiful mountainous range amply qualifies for a scenery in a typical Hollywood movie. Adorned with lush green vegetation and light forests, which have been complimented by flow of the Calabar River, nature could not be more generous to the Adiabo community which lies about 30km in the outskirts of Calabar, the Cross River state capital in the Sout of Nigeria. Any visitor to this area leaves with an impression of land that has live in its full. It is no surprise therefore that the state Governor, Donald Duke made the choice of Adiabo community to host his dream eco-tourism project, the Tinapa Business and Leisure Resort.
The idea of Tinapa itself did not come in a day as it has been part of a long held plan by the Governor to harness the enormous tourism potentials of the state into economic benefits for the Government and people of the state. Duke, the State Governor told THISDAY that on assumption of office, his resolve was to focus on two key sectors of the economy namely; Agriculture because of its centrality as employer of over 80 per cent of the state's population and tourism, because of its potentials to launch the state into the comity of fast moving economies of Africa.
Duke's dream to transform Cross River into tourism wonderland crystallized into a solid idea sometime in 2003 when he appointed a team of experts and consultants from South Africa, Italy, China and Germany to conduct a study on the establishment of an integrated business and tourism resort. The committee submitted its report in the course of the year with a strong recommendation of the economic viability of the project. The adoption of the report led to a firm investment decision by the state government to embark on the project.
Following its incorporation, a ground breaking ceremony was performed in January 2004 during which Gitto Construction company, an Italian firm was contracted to kick-start the project especially site surveys and clearance, sand filling and primary access roads. .
FEATURES OF THE RESORT
As originally conceived, Tinapa Business Resort is not only ambitious, it is novel in the annals of the economic history of Nigeria and indeed Africa. The original idea, according to Duke, is to have an integrated business and tourism set up where visitors from both within and outside the country would have the opportunity to shop for goods of various kinds of international standard in a friendly environment which offers full leisure, thus achieving a perfect integration of serious business and leisure.
Duke displayed in the Government House Calabar disclosed that the Tinapa Business Resort would have among other facilities four emporiums of each 80,000m the size of three football fields) in the main bowl. These emporiums would have goods of various types which Nigerians hitherto travel to Dubai, Europe and other internationally recognized free trade zones to purchase.
Apart from the emporiums there would be several entertainment centres with facilities for cinemas, food courts, games arcade and other attractions.
In the plan also, at least two luxury hotels would be built. The first with 250 rooms to cater for accommodation needs of visitors and the second, a 300-rooom self-catering apartment hotel. Also in the leisure segment, an artificial of lake of 2km would be created to provide for boating by tourists. Other facilities to be put on in the complex include a huge water park, golf parks, numerous restaurants, a cultural village which shall have crafts, traditional dresses and other cultural items to offer and support services like sick bay, management offices, fire fighting centre etc.
In subsequent phases, the resort would have another hotel and massive conference complex, two luxury lodges, expanded leisure and entertainment facilities including water sports, quad biking, archery and expanded cultural and educational components including an aviary, Africa´s largest aquarium, a crocodile farm and primate rehabilitation centre among others.
Tinapa no doubt is an ambitious project. With estimated cost put at over $1 billion, it is clearly the biggest investment of its kind anywhere in Africa.. He hinged his optimism on the calculation that from the feasibility report, at least 3 million people were expected at the Tinapa annually
