Between November 1, 2024 and December 29, 2024, Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar recorded over 10,000 inbound passengers, while 79 percent of the passengers were visiting from other states of the federation.

Three percent of the visitors, who were from diaspora, attended the just concluded 2024 Calabar Festival and for leisure.

According to a report from the Cross River State Tourism Bureau Research Department, the 10,000 inbound passengers from the Calabar International Airport rose from 7,452 recorded within the same period in 2023.

Equally, an estimated N8.875 billion was spent on transportation by visitors and tourists to the 2024 Calabar Festival.

Of the 150,000 visitors that attended the event in December 2024, the statistics revealed that while 7 percent came through the air, no fewer than 89 percent used road transportation just as the remaining 4 percent attended through sea transportation.

According to the report: “A total number of 62,512 visitors were estimated to have visited the destination for the 2023 Calabar festivals and Carnival, spending about N3.1 billion on transportation to the destination.

“Most of the visitors were from Akwa Ibom State, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abia, FCT, Enugu, Cameroon, United Kingdom, Canada and Equatorial Guinea. Calabar recorded over 300,000 tourists within the period of (1st November 2024 – December 31st, 2024) that came in for sightseeing of the OMR, Marina Resort and the Kwa falls.

“Most of the tourists were from Abuja, the FCT, Lagos and neighbouring Akwa Ibom states. Again, there was a tremendous increase in tourists to the destination when compared to the 2023 figures of over 190,345 tourists to our enchanted attraction sites.”

The report also showed that the occupancy rate of accommodation establishments in Calabar rose to 68 percent in 2024 from 57 percent in 2023, while over 90 percent of hotels in Calabar had a 100 percent occupancy rate from December 15 to December 29, 2024.

It also estimated revenue generated from hotel bookings to be at N2.79 billion ($1.74 million) with N25,000 per night confirmed hotel bookings in December alone for about 3,600 available bed spaces in Calabar cluster.

Revenue from food and breakfast alone stood at an estimated N900 million ($562,000), it was estimated.

The theme for the 2024 Calabar Carnival which lasted for 32 days was: ‘Our Shared Prosperity.’

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