Nigeria Tourism Campaign 2026: Ember to Remember Explained

Nigeria has launched a new national tourism campaign designed to bring the country’s festivals, cultural events, hospitality businesses and destination experiences together under one coordinated programme.

Known as Ember to Remember 2026, the initiative is a 100-day tourism season running from September through December. The Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy officially flagged off the programme and unveiled its national tourism calendar at a stakeholders’ conference in Lagos on September 14, 2026.

The campaign is intended to make it easier for Nigerians, members of the diaspora and international visitors to discover tourism experiences across the country.

Rather than treating December as the only major period for tourism and homecoming, the government wants the September-to-December period to become a more structured tourism season.

What is Ember to Remember?

Ember to Remember is a national tourism programme developed by the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy in partnership with MyCityApp.

The government first announced the initiative in August, describing it as a 100-day programme connecting tourism with culture, entertainment, hospitality, transportation, commerce and the wider creative economy.

The programme covers activities from September to December and is intended to create a more coordinated way of promoting what is happening across Nigeria during the traditionally busy end-of-year period.

The Ministry says the country’s festivals, food, music, fashion, heritage and hospitality experiences already exist throughout the year. The campaign is intended to bring greater visibility and coordination to those experiences.

A national digital tourism calendar

One of the main components of the campaign is a National Digital Events and Experiences Calendar.

The calendar is being powered by MyCityApp, which describes itself as a digital city and tourism platform connecting users with events, destinations, hospitality, culture and experiences.

The platform currently provides categories including festivals, tours and travel, food experiences, art exhibitions, carnivals, music festivals, cinema and other events.

The aim is to give visitors one place to discover events taking place across Nigeria rather than requiring them to search separately through dozens of event organisers, tourism operators and state-level platforms.

At the September 14 conference, the Federal Government called on state governments, event organisers, tourism operators, hotels and other stakeholders to populate the calendar with their September-to-December activities.

Why international visitors are part of the strategy

The campaign is not aimed only at Nigerians living in the country.

Government officials have specifically identified Nigerians in the diaspora and international visitors as audiences the national calendar is intended to reach.

The Ministry’s earlier announcement said the digital platform would help international visitors discover events and tourism experiences across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

That approach reflects a broader government effort to strengthen inbound tourism.

In January 2026, the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy said inbound tourism and international visibility were strategic priorities for Nigeria’s tourism development. The ministry’s International Tourism Promotion and Cooperation Department also has a mandate to promote Nigeria as a tourism destination and participate in international tourism fairs and promotional programmes.

From festive season to tourism economy

Nigeria’s December period already attracts significant travel activity involving Nigerians returning from abroad, domestic travellers and visitors attending concerts, festivals and cultural events.

The government is attempting to extend that activity beyond the traditional December peak.

At the September conference, officials described the initiative as an attempt to move from isolated events towards a more organised tourism economy.

The idea is that a visitor attending a festival does not spend money only on the event.

That visitor may also need:

• An airline ticket
• Airport transportation
• Hotel accommodation
• Restaurants
• Local transportation
• Tour services
• Shopping
• Entertainment
• Cultural experiences

This creates economic connections across several parts of the tourism and hospitality value chain.

The Federal Government has therefore presented the campaign as an opportunity for hotels, restaurants, transport operators, retailers, event organisers, artisans and local communities.

Government targets a $100 billion opportunity

The September 14 conference was themed “From Celebration to Economic Growth: Unlocking Nigeria’s $100 Billion Tourism and Creative Economy Opportunity.”

The figure has received considerable attention, but it is important to understand what it represents.

The $100 billion figure is being presented by government and stakeholders as an economic opportunity or ambition for the tourism and creative economy. It is not a claim that Nigeria has already generated $100 billion in tourism revenue.

The Minister has said achieving such an ambition would require cooperation between government, private businesses, technology companies, investors, states and communities.

That distinction matters when assessing the campaign.

The launch establishes a programme and a promotional platform. It does not, by itself, demonstrate that the projected economic value has already been achieved.

States are expected to play a major role

The national campaign depends heavily on state governments and local tourism operators.

Nigeria’s tourism attractions are distributed across the country.

Lagos has beaches, entertainment and cultural attractions.

Cross River has rainforest, cultural festivals and destinations such as Calabar.

Oyo has historic sites and cultural festivals.

Osun is associated with the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove and the annual Osun-Osogbo festival.

Kano has historic and cultural attractions.

Plateau State has its landscapes and highland destinations.

Several other states have festivals, heritage sites, natural attractions and cultural experiences that can form part of the national tourism offering.

The Federal Government has therefore encouraged states to showcase their destinations and events through the national calendar.

The campaign also creates an opportunity for smaller destinations

One potential effect of a national calendar is that tourism information does not have to remain concentrated around the country’s biggest cities.

A visitor searching for events in Nigeria could discover a cultural festival, food experience, art exhibition or local attraction in a state they might otherwise have overlooked.

The MyCityApp platform currently organises events by categories and locations, providing a mechanism through which smaller experiences can potentially reach wider audiences.

For local tourism businesses, visibility can be as important as physical infrastructure.

A hotel room, tour service or cultural experience cannot generate much tourism revenue if potential visitors do not know that it exists.

Private businesses are central to the campaign

The Federal Government has repeatedly said that it cannot build the tourism economy by itself.

At the September conference, the Ministry called for stronger collaboration with investors, hospitality companies, technology platforms, airlines, event organisers, creative businesses and other private-sector participants.

This matters because tourism requires services that government alone does not normally provide.

Visitors need accommodation.

They need transportation.

They need restaurants.

They need reliable payment systems.

They need tour operators and guides.

They need entertainment and cultural experiences.

They also need information about where to go and how to get there.

The campaign attempts to connect some of these parts through a shared promotional structure.

Tourism investment remains a wider government priority

The Ember to Remember campaign is part of a broader push to position tourism as an economic sector.

In June, the Federal Government launched a national compendium documenting the economic, investment, tourism and cultural profiles of Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT.

The government described the publication as a resource for investors, policymakers, development partners and the wider public.

Vice President Kashim Shettima also said in June that states needed to document their assets, attract investment, grow tourism and turn local potential into jobs and wider economic opportunities.

This suggests that the current tourism strategy is not limited to event promotion.

Destination development and investment are also part of the wider policy discussion.

Attracting visitors requires more than advertising

A national tourism campaign can improve visibility, but advertising alone does not determine whether visitors return.

International visitors also consider issues such as:

• Security
• Visa and immigration processes
• Transport connections
• Road quality
• Hotel standards
• Cleanliness
• Digital connectivity
• Payment options
• Tourist information
• Healthcare access
• Customer service
• Attraction management

The government has acknowledged the need for an enabling environment involving infrastructure, security, destination development and ease of movement.

That means the long-term performance of the campaign will depend on what happens beyond the calendar itself.

Why the September-to-December period matters

The timing of the campaign is deliberate.

Nigeria’s “ember months” are already associated with increased social activity, entertainment, travel and homecoming.

Instead of allowing the activity to remain fragmented, the government wants to package it as a national tourism season.

The programme therefore covers four months rather than concentrating everything around December.

The current MyCityApp calendar lists events across September, October, November and December.

This could give businesses more time to plan promotions, accommodation packages, transportation services and tourism experiences.

What the campaign could mean for tourism businesses

Hotels, restaurants, event organisers, tour operators and other tourism-related businesses have an opportunity to use the national calendar to increase visibility.

For a hotel, being associated with a major festival can create opportunities for special packages.

A restaurant can promote local cuisine to visitors.

A tour operator can package multiple attractions into an itinerary.

An artisan can sell locally produced crafts.

A state tourism agency can use the platform to showcase destinations beyond its major annual festival.

The economic effect therefore depends partly on whether businesses convert visibility into actual products and services that visitors can purchase.

Measuring whether the campaign works

The most important test will be what happens after the campaign launches.

The government has discussed outcomes including visitors attracted, hotel occupancy, jobs, business activity, community income and investment.

Those indicators provide a useful framework for evaluating the programme.

Simply counting the number of events listed on a website would not show whether the campaign has strengthened tourism.

More meaningful measures would include:

• Domestic visitor numbers
• International arrivals
• Hotel occupancy
• Tourism-related spending
• Transport demand
• New tourism investments
• Jobs supported
• Revenue generated by tourism businesses
• Repeat visitors
• Visitor satisfaction

Reliable data will be important if Nigeria wants to determine whether the programme is producing lasting economic benefits.

A longer-term tourism strategy

The government has also indicated that the campaign should go beyond the end of December.

The Minister has argued that Nigeria’s culture, festivals, food, music, fashion and hospitality are available throughout the year.

That creates a challenge for the tourism sector.

A four-month campaign may increase attention during the festive period, but sustainable tourism requires destinations that can attract visitors outside the peak season.

A year-round strategy could therefore involve developing attractions, improving visitor services, strengthening destination marketing and creating tourism products that operate across different seasons.

What happens next?

The Ember to Remember 2026 season is now underway.

The national digital calendar is being populated with events and experiences scheduled across September to December.

The programme gives Nigerian states, tourism operators and creative businesses a central promotional opportunity while giving domestic and international visitors a way to discover events and destinations.

The Federal Government’s broader ambition is to turn cultural and festive activity into sustained economic value.

Whether the campaign achieves that will depend on implementation, private-sector participation, visitor experience, infrastructure and the ability to turn increased visibility into actual travel and spending.

For now, Nigeria has moved from announcing the idea to putting the national tourism calendar into operation.

The next stage will be seeing how many visitors the campaign attracts, how much business it generates and whether the momentum can continue after the traditional December tourism rush.