Festival of Creatives is the 52nd tourism product promised to the tourism industry last year by Otunba Olawanle Akinboboye, to enrich the industry. It is therefore safe to say that he has now tabled a year’s worth of tourism products and hopefully these products has provided tourism entrepreneurs with ideas on how to create income streams for themselves and others in the tourism industry.
According to Otunba Akinboboye, Africans with their rich cultural heritage, are extremely creative. In this regard, he noted that Nigeria is at the forefront of projecting such creativity, as Nigerian artistes in the music sector are creating music that is being played throughout the world.
However, in his opinion, and based on what he has seen in Nigeria, such creativity emanates from a small group that live in cosmopolitan areas, whose entertainment mode is targeted to a westernized audience. To a large extent, has a very limited reach as, by 2023, only 37% of Africa’s population had internet access. Consequently, Africans are limited in their ability to take advantage of Tiktok, You Tube and other social media platforms to table and promote their uniquely African talents and / or creativity before the world.
Festival of Creatives is the 52nd tourism product promised to the tourism industry last year by Otunba Olawanle Akinboboye, to enrich the industry. It is therefore safe to say that he has now tabled a year’s worth of tourism products and hopefully these products has provided tourism entrepreneurs with ideas on how to create income streams for themselves and others in the tourism industry.
According to Otunba Akinboboye, Africans with their rich cultural heritage, are extremely creative. In this regard, he noted that Nigeria is at the forefront of projecting such creativity, as Nigerian artistes in the music sector are creating music that is being played throughout the world.
However, in his opinion, and based on what he has seen in Nigeria, such creativity emanates from a small group that live in cosmopolitan areas, whose entertainment mode is targeted to a westernized audience. To a large extent, has a very limited reach as, by 2023, only 37% of Africa’s population had internet access. Consequently, Africans are limited in their ability to take advantage of Tiktok, You Tube and other social media platforms to table and promote their uniquely African talents and / or creativity before the world.
Otunba Akinboboye emphasized that there is therefore a need to create platforms through which a young person in Bida or Eket, Moshi or Kigali could showcase the talents that he or she possesses, which has a uniquely African flavour.
Otunba Akinboboye elaborated on platforms created in other parts of the world to discover and show case the hidden talents and creativity of ordinary people.
He mentioned ‘America’s Got Talent‘ which is a reality show of which amateur performers presents their singing, dancing, comedic and novelty acts to celebrity judges and a nationwide audience in order to advance in a competition and win a significant prize. There is also a show called ‘the Voice’, where contestants are selected through public auditions and trained by a panel of four ‘star’ coaches who guide and critique their performances in an attempt to discover America’s next great voice. This shows focus on singing and has the same goal as another show called ‘American Idol’ which discovers great singers like Kelly Clarkson, who was a waitress when she entered the competition and is now a famous singer with a talk show and Jennifer Hudson, who was a singer on a Disney Cruise ship. Both of these shows have developed into global franchises but largely focus on music popular in the US and UK.
Otunba Akinboboye noted that it is estimated that America’s Got Talent earns US$6.29 million per annum while each year’s overall winner receives a prize of US $1 million, which is paid as US$25,000 over 40 years, although the winner could opt for a one – off final prize of US $100,000. The Voice makes US $13 million per season in revenue with the season winner receiving a US $100,000 prize and a recording contract.
Otunba Akinboboye feels it is possible to create and present an event that promotes African culture and creativity, but which is not a spin off of a global franchise that promotes music, dance and comedy tailored to western culture.
It is with this in mind that he is promoting an event called ‘The Festival of Creativity’ which would take place during the Ipada Carnival, the first edition of which is scheduled to take place from 29 November 2024 .
Otunba Akinboboye noted that the Festival is open to Africans throughout the continent and in the Diaspora, who would be given the opportunity to present their creative talents in all categories of entertainment to be judged by a panel of judges. The only stipulation is that such creativity must be African focused and project African culture at its best.
Contestants would be judged based on their performances during the event with the overall winner receiving a monetary prize. It is also hoped that, by showcasing their unique African talents, young performers would be exposed to the world of professional entertainment and that entertainment scouts would become aware of and be willing to promote their careers in entertainment.
Otunba Akinboboye also noted that, by focusing purely on African creativity, the event would be building a pipeline of entertainers that would support the continent’s African focused tourism industry.
Otunba Akinboboye mentioned that young tourism entrepreneurs could explore creating events that had a similar focus and goal, as reality shows like the Voice and American Idol have proved there is room for numerous events designed to discover and promote creatives.
I thanked Otunba Akinboboye for the insights on tourism products he had provided over the last one year. I felt compelled to ask whether there were any other tourism products he could still talk on.
He laughingly replied that he was always creating products as tourism is a dynamic industry that constantly requires new attractions.
He noted that, as the year is a leap year, he is open speaking about one more tourism product to mark the fact the year includes one extra day.
He emphasized that his focus would now be on either personally executing the products he had spoken about or encouraging others to execute them so that we can grow the tourism products offered in Nigeria and create job opportunities for our people.
