Christy Anyanwu
Stella Ibiene Obinwa, the director, Africa International Operations, Dubai Tourism, is passionate about tourism. In this interview with Sunday Sun, she talked about her journey into her career, how it has been marketing tourism, among others.
How has it been marketing Dubai as a destination?
Marketing Dubai to various countries in sub-Saharan Africa has been a wonderful experience. Initially, I had to learn and understand the consumer, business and travel languages of the various countries. Then we customized the Dubai “unique selling propositions” to meet the markets. Dubai is an amazing destination that has qualities that appeal to any traveller. Africans are warm by culture, and love adventure, business, and relaxation. So, it has been exciting positioning Dubai to them as the #1 destination to travel to. My team and I travel quite a lot, as we have at least 10 core African countries, namely – Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda. We are constantly adding more such as Seychelles and Mauritius this year. We’d like to target all the countries, and we will do so as time allows. Travel agents in African countries are welcoming and eager to utilize all the tools we have to improve their sales to Dubai. The entertainment industry has also been quite involved, obliging us with visits and recounting the same to their fans. This has created quite a bit of awareness for Dubai. Dubai is a destination that literally sells itself if you’ve visited once.
Tell us how it all started…and what was your attraction to Dubai before you took the job?
My career in tourism started with Walt Disney World in 2002. Every nationality in the world visits Disney, and I was fortunate to work there as a Project Controller (with Deloitte & Touche), and then Finance Manager. I was quite comfortable there, but opportunity came knocking in 2007, and I moved to Wyndham Hotels & Vacation Resorts as the Director Marketing Operations for the Southern region (Caribbean included). In 2013, I was in Nigeria for my father’s 75th birthday and I was approached by a few companies with great opportunities in travel and hospitality. I chose to join Wakanow.com and relocated from Orlando to Lagos the same year. I learnt quite a bit there, and I daresay I had a strong impact on their success as the Chief Business & Product Officer. I had been with Wakanow.com for about 20 months before the opportunity to work at Dubai Tourism presented itself. I had been to Dubai a couple of times, and the city awed me. The opportunity to lead their International Operations for Africa was a natural fit for me. I felt all my prior experience had prepared me for this role. I joined Dubai Tourism in 2015. When you visit Dubai, you will understand the attraction to work there. The leaders of Dubai had a vision that created the great city it is today. From sand to skyscrapers…islands, theme parks, aquariums, shopping malls, culture, the best hotels…Dubai has everything. And the entire city (locals and expatriates alike) are committed to the vision. I welcomed the opportunity to be part of something great.
You travel a lot, don’t you have any phobia for trips?
My mother just came on a visit. I live in Dubai. She saw all the suitcases and I told her, that I just keep them packed because it’s too much of a headache to unpack and pack. Travelling is probably the most valuable form of education if you are an open-minded person. Traveling exposes you to different cultures, different ways of thinking, different understandings, it cuts out myths and things of that nature. So, having gone to so many African countries I can appreciate the different cultures and respects them too. The best way to educate yourself is to travel.
What lessons have you learnt about life in all these trips?
Don’t compromise your integrity, keep your hands and your spirit clean, and no matter what difficulties you are facing, God will see you through. Do things to help people not because you want to benefit from it. I believe that everybody holds someone’s destiny in his or her hands. You don’t know whose own you are holding. Everybody needs doors or windows open for them. You don’t have the keys to open the doors and windows for yourself, someone else does and if you are unkind to that person, they might not be inclined to help you. So, at all times, try and be kind and help others. Show integrity; keep your hands and spirit clean.
What is your take on fashion?
Fashion is low maintenance for me. First of all, I hate shopping; 90 per cent of my shopping I do online. While I’m sitting and working , I make my orders. In spite of what the public say, I’m not all that glitz and glamour person. You can see my hair, I have dreadlocks, I can’t wear wig, I can’t go to the salon. I’m just low maintenance. I just wash my hair and off I go. The jewellery I wear now is the same jewellery I have 10 years now. I don’t know the difference between diamonds and the rest. I’m really low maintenance. I’m glad to have some friends that do my shopping and tell me what I should and shouldn’t wear. I like to wear jeans. Fashion is too much headache. I can’t keep up with the joneses. I just want to be free.
How do you start your day and how do you relax?
Because my job is so public, in my private time I like to be by myself. I can stay by myself a whole week and not seen other human beings. I’m so happy. I like to do cross-word puzzles a lot, I can spend five hours a day or months doing 3,000 quiz cross-word puzzles. I like music a lot. Everywhere I go I travel with speakers, either head or volume speakers in the room. Music, cross-word puzzles, I like prime shows a lot. I do enjoy being by myself.
Did you grow up in Nigeria?
Not exactly. I was born in the United States. When I was 10 years old, my dad moved the family back to Nigeria and I went to boarding school here and a little bit of university. I went back to the states and lived some years before deciding to follow a different career path, which took me international.
What is your favourite food?
If I have my way, I would eat garri and yam every day. On the western side because I live in Dubai, I do cook. There is always soup in my house. I can eat garri 8:00 in the morning, 10:00 at night and my kids are like that too? They can eat garri every day now. I go through food cravings where for three months, all I want to do is eat hamburgers three times a day. Then, right now, my addiction is Kentucky fried chicken. I will buy a bucket of 15 pieces and I will eat like three or four pieces, two times a day. When it’s done I ordered another one. I’m so excited, but garri and yam are stable addiction.
Don’t you miss Nigeria when you are abroad?
Let me see, is it the electricity that I miss or the traffic? There are some aspects of Nigeria that I really like. The hustling and bustling is not bad, it keeps you in reality. Nigerians are lots of fun. Every person I bring from Dubai to Nigeria like the country. That’s because they don’t live here and they don’t go to the generator noise. I’m here every other month. Nigeria is fine, the people are hardworking.
You look trendy, what do you do to keep in shape?
I jog lightly, maybe four, five times a day, but with music of course. I think it’s also genes. My mum and dad have nice figures too.
You have a programme coming up in Nigeria, what is it about?
Every year, Dubai Tourism holds a roadshow in Nigeria. The roadshow enables Dubai companies such as airlines, hotels, DMCs, attractions, and hospital present their products and services to the travel industry in Nigeria. We started this in 2017 with about 15 companies. This year we have 50 plus companies coming from Dubai. This is the largest roadshow Dubai Tourism has taken to any country, and we are proud of this accomplishment. It will be a full day of “exhibiting” in three cities in Nigeria – Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Lagos. The UAE Ambassador will be present at the roadshow in Abuja to support us.
As a Nigerian professional, what are the things you think have been de-marketing Nigeria?
Every country has to address challenges in positioning herself to the international community. This is largely due to varying cultures, infrastructure and expectations. A country or city needs to purposefully decide if tourism is to be a revenue source, and then build or enhance infrastructure to support the vision. Fully operational airports with customer-friendly employees, visa accessibility, enhanced security, attractions, world class hotels, internal transportation and restaurants are a few of the opportunities that come to mind.
What would you like to see changed in Nigeria to attract tourism?
I think if most of the challenges mentioned above are addressed, Nigerian tourism will improve.
