Nigeria’s tourism, real estate and hospitality industries are evolving as consumers increasingly seek experiences that extend beyond traditional property and accommodation. This changing demand is driving the growth of integrated destinations that combine residential, hospitality, leisure, retail, entertainment and technology in a single ecosystem.
For developers and investors, the shift is changing how destinations are conceived, financed and operated, while placing greater emphasis on domestic tourism and the ability to create experiences that attract visitors repeatedly.
In an exclusive interview with Nairametrics, Landmark Africa CEO, Paul Onwuanibe, discussed the forces driving this transformation, the scale of Nigeria’s domestic tourism market and the opportunities emerging across the country’s real estate, hospitality and tourism sectors.
Paul Onwuanibe: The major change is that consumers increasingly value experiences alongside physical products. When we began, the focus was much more conventional: offices and property.
Over time, we saw that people did not want these in isolation. They wanted places where they could work, eat, meet, stay, exercise, attend an event, take their children out or simply spend time. That changed the economics of our real estate.
We began creating destinations where all of these uses come together in one location. Landmark Waterview is an extension of that thinking into residential real estate. It is not simply about providing apartments; it is about creating a residential product connected to lifestyle, hospitality, leisure and the wider Landmark ecosystem.
We are also extending that experience beyond the physical destination through technology. The Landmark Citizen App allows customers to discover, access and transact across different parts of the ecosystem from one platform, helping us build a more connected relationship with the people who use our destinations.
The other major opportunity is domestic tourism. According to estimates from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Nigerians travelling within the country spent approximately N4.95 trillion in 2024, about ten times the N491.9 billion spent by international visitors.
This highlights the scale of the domestic tourism market and reinforces our view that the most immediate opportunity lies in serving Nigerians first, while also building for the wider African market.
International tourism remains important, but our destinations are being designed to encourage repeat local and regional visitation, creating experiences people want to return to rather than relying primarily on one-time international tourist arrivals.
Paul Onwuanibe: Consumers are undoubtedly more selective. When disposable income comes under pressure, people ask much harder questions about value. But we have also learned something interesting: the desire for experience does not disappear; consumers become more deliberate about where they spend.
That means our job is not simply to raise prices to compensate for costs. It is to continue giving customers compelling reasons to choose Landmark. The indicators within the ecosystem are encouraging.
The Landmark Upside Down House had received more than 50,000 visitors since launch, Event Centre bookings had doubled year-on-year since 2024, and POP Landmark had hosted more than 150 events in a year. That affects investment decisions because we track what customers actually use and where they go to. If an experience drives repeat footfall and strengthens surrounding businesses, it gives us evidence to scale it.
If consumer behaviour changes, we need to change with it. Our currency ultimately is people: if people keep coming and having reasons to return, the ecosystem has something valuable to monetise.
Paul Onwuanibe: It is challenging because these are capital-intensive, long-duration investments. Construction costs are exposed to inflation, foreign exchange and the imported content of building materials and equipment.
Financing costs are significant. And time itself is a cost: the longer a project takes before producing income, the greater the financing and execution risk. Nigerian real-estate projects can be described as investments that can take around five years to mature, while highlighting rising material costs, exchange-rate volatility, interest rates and labour costs as pressures on developers.
The advantage of an integrated destination is that you are not dependent on a single revenue stream. You can have residential sales, hospitality, events, food and beverage, retail, entertainment, leisure and commercial income supporting the same ecosystem. We also increasingly favour phased development.
Rather than waiting until every component is complete before creating activity, you can activate parts of the destination progressively, prove demand, generate cash flow and use market feedback to determine the next phase.
Ultimately, financing these projects requires a combination of equity, appropriate debt, partnerships and capital. Short-term money is a poor match for a twenty-year asset.
Paul Onwuanibe: A good PPP begins with alignment of interests.
The government needs to be clear about what it wants to achieve: jobs, tourism, infrastructure renewal, IGR, increased visitor numbers or community development. The private investor needs a commercially viable operating framework and enough tenure and certainty to justify investing substantial capital.
The second requirement is speed and clarity of decision-making. A project becomes very difficult when responsibilities are unclear or approvals move indefinitely between institutions.
The third is an appropriate allocation of risk. The government should manage the risks it controls, land, enabling regulation and certain public infrastructure, while the private partner should take responsibility for capital deployment, development, operations, service delivery and commercial performance within the agreed structure.
Landmark Nike Lake Resort is a good example of the potential model: Enugu State contributed the existing asset, while Landmark took responsibility for management, operations and investment in repositioning the destination.
The objective of a good PPP should not be for one party to defeat the other at the negotiating table. It should create an arrangement that remains commercially and politically sustainable long after the agreement is signed.
Paul Onwuanibe: We commenced operations at Landmark Nike Lake Resort in early March 2025, and what we inherited was an important legacy asset with enormous potential. Since then, the focus has been a phased transformation rather than attempting to close the property and rebuild everything at once.
Investment is going into accommodation upgrades, landscaping and environmental enhancement, food and beverage, recreation, wellness, activities, the overall experience and the broader repositioning of the resort.
We have also introduced the Landmark Upside Down House at the Landmark Nike Lake Resort, and it is now the first in the South East and second in West Africa, we have more unique experiences like this in the pipeline .
On the two-million-visitor ambition, we would describe it as a destination target. You don’t create that level of visitation with hotel rooms alone. You create reasons for families, schools, businesses, tourists, eventgoers and weekend travellers to return repeatedly.
Our job now is to build that ecosystem. And we remain very optimistic about the scale of Landmark Nike Lake’s long-term potential.
Paul Onwuanibe: The project is moving forward, but the timeline has evolved from our initial assumptions. Our early timeline was ambitious because we were keen to activate the destination quickly.
As we progressed, however, it became clear that revitalising a historic waterfront asset requires considerable site preparation, technical work, stakeholder coordination and infrastructure before the destination can achieve the standard we want.
We have therefore chosen to phase it properly rather than rush an incomplete product to market. And now the project is expected to commence development works in Q4 2026, in preparation for the yuletide season.
The important point is that our commitment to Port Harcourt has not changed. If anything, the project has become more strategically important because it demonstrates what Landmark 2.0 is intended to do: take our destination-management capability into another major Nigerian city and revive an existing tourism asset.
Paul Onwuanibe: Waterfront developments are among the most attractive assets you can create, but they are also among the most technically and commercially demanding. You have coastal engineering and environmental risks, drainage and erosion considerations, infrastructure requirements, access and traffic management, security and significant ongoing maintenance requirements.
