TOURISM IN NIGERIA is nothing if not earned. It takes eight hours by bus to travel the 250 kilometres from Lagos to Idanre on a road strewn with potholes and other obstacles.

Then there are the negotiations with unscrupulous police officers and a climb of 620 steps in the sticky, tropical heat.

But those who’ve made the trip say it’s worth it just for a selfie in front of the sumptuous Yorubaland hills with Chiamaka Obuekwe, Nigeria’s self-styled “Queen of Tours”.

“I always wanted to have a picture with her! We’ve seen so many on her page,” says one traveller on an organised weekend as Chiamaka poses with the 15-strong group of 20- to 35-year-olds, all of them in bright “Social Prefect Tours” T-shirts.

Behind them, the hills stretch out as far as the eye can see, trees rising upwards from the rocks below through a light mist in a scene worthy of “Jurassic Park”.

Chiamaka, as everyone calls her, never intended to found a travel agency, but the followers of her blog and Instagram account persuaded her to, asking if they could come along.

Since its creation in 2015, Social Prefect Tours has become an institution for well-connected young professionals in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.

Chiamaka’s Instagram page currently has more than 40,000 followers. They’re shared goal is to post a precious hashtag from across Nigeria in the same way pins were once put on a map.

“If you didn’t take a picture, it’s like it never happened,” she says. “So it’s better you didn’t even go there.”

Beyond collecting “likes” and heart emojis, the Internet has also helped Nigerians discover and better understand their own country.

British colonialists stitched Nigeria together from their poorer, mainly Muslim northern protectorate and richer, largely Christian southern one. Religious tensions occasionally bubble up.

With Nigeria’s economy almost exclusively based on oil and gas, tourism development is lacking, even at the local level.

There are few wild animals left for safaris and a lack of quality hotels, while inadequate roads make many places hard to reach and entire regions have been devastated by conflict.

Few people are going to be enticed by the oil slicks that have polluted beaches in the southern Niger delta region.

Yet Africa’s most populous nation has real hidden treasures.

“Obudu Mountains, at the Cameroonian border, are just breathtaking,” says Lola Daniyan, the 28-year-old head of an online travel agency called Unravelling Nigeria.

Her site, where participants post their photos from trips, is one of those that’s lit up social media, making up for a lack of official tourism promotion in the last 30 years.

Daniyan decided to set up her business while on a family holiday in London, when she saw hundreds of people flocking to Buckingham Palace.

“I thought, ‘Why don’t people come to see our royal palaces? We have so many, but people don’t know about them.’

“Actually, we don’t know each other. If you have been in Lagos all your life and you go to Kano in the north, it’s like, ‘Wow!’ We don’t know about the north, we don’t know how they live.

“Travelling makes you humble and empathetic,” she adds.

Nigeria as a single entity dates back to 1914, when British colonialists brought together their northern and southern protectorates purely for commercial reasons.

The West African nation is home to more than 500 ethnic groups and is almost evenly split between a Muslim-majority north, and a largely Christian, more prosperous south.

Religious tensions are rarely far from the surface and each side regards the other with suspicion or, in the best-case scenario, disdain and indifference.

The misted Idanre hills in Idanre can be quite breathtaking./AFP 

Georgina Duke and Emeka Okocha were neither. They decided to discover their country after spending a large part of their childhood studying abroad.

They took to the road, trusting their own instincts – and dismissing stereotypes and those who said it couldn’t be done – by founding Nothing To Do in Lagos, an Internet platform that lists organised trips and gives tips to solo adventurers.

“We are Nigerians. Nigeria is our country. We can’t live in Nigeria and not see it ourselves,” says Okocha.

“We want to be part of it, owning our space and fighting social restrictions.”

Best friends before becoming business associates, they started from scratch in Lagos in 2014. Duke described it as “a bit like exploring our backyard”.

From 2015, they gradually ventured farther afield – north to Kaduna, west towards Lome in Togo and east to Enugu – driven by curiosity and a “thirst for discovery”. But there were sometimes disappointments.

“Once, we flew to Anambra State for a wedding, and saw that the Ohum Caves were just two hours away by road. It looked great, so we decided to extend our trip,” recalls Okocha.

But, he adds, “When we got there, people in the area said we should have told them 24 hours in advance that we were coming.

“On which phone number? Well, I don’t know!”

Unfortunately for them, not everything was on the Internet.

MUSIC THROBS from a bar set up on a patch of scrubland and artists toil in what was once a tyre factory. This is the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, but not as the locals know it.

Better known for concrete high-rises home to poor immigrants and France’s highest crime rate, Seine-Saint-Denis is now welcoming flocks of Parisians to hipster oases that are bringing a welcome injection of cash and energy.

When they set up in the northern suburb more than a decade ago, Soukmachines, a collective of young event planners, initially “had to clear what resembled a rubbish dump”, recalls Anne-Sophie Levet.

A mechanic sizes up his next job at a bike repair workshop.

These days she is deputy head of La Halle Papin, a vast pop-up arts space in the solidly working-class neighbourhood of Quatre Chemins.

In 2016, the local town hall had offered Soukmachines a year’s use of the unoccupied tyre and tool factory for a dirt-cheap rent, on condition that they breathed new life into it.

One year was extended to three, and now it is a thriving hub of artists’ studios and shops with a busy programme of concerts and cultural events, a paddling pool and self-service barbecues.

“There are jewellers, fashion designers, welders,” says Franck Cardinal, an artist and architect who works on site.

“It’s a chance to meet other people who do different work, and enrich what we all produce here.”

Some 20,000 people visited last year, many of them Parisians – for whom the ring-road around the capital has traditionally marked a psychological barrier.

“These are now places for strolling and for tourists to visit in greater Paris, for Parisians looking for a bit of space, and places to party,” says the region’s Socialist head Stephane Troussel.

Paris is far from the first city to turn unwanted land into an edgy arts hub: similar projects have found success all over Europe, from the shipyards of Amsterdam’s NDSM to RAW in Berlin, an unused train repair depot.

Around 80 plots of wasteland have been given makeovers in Paris and the surrounding region.

People sit and enjoy the bar of the Halle Papin. 

But local officials are proud that more than a third are in Seine-Saint-Denis – unloved areas turned into cultural spaces, community centres or even urban farms.

The region north of Paris boomed after World War II, drawing thousands of labourers from France’s North African colonies to its chemical factories, metalworks and other industrial sites.

But de-industrialisation hit Seine-Saint-Denis hard from the 1960s onwards, emptying factories as the region’s reputation shifted to one of crime and poverty.

Today, a third of residents live below the poverty line, although authorities hope a massive infrastructure project dubbed “Grand Paris” will aid regeneration by enticing commuters to the suburb by 2025.

In the meantime, while some may complain of a hipster influx, officials see projects like La Halle Papin as a showcase for the potential of “the 93”, as Seine-Saint-Denis is known after its postcode.

Similar projects include the Cite Fertile, a former freight train depot now offering organic food and beach volleyball, as well as Station E, a forthcoming “village” of shipping containers which will be powered by green energy.

“We have an area full of enterprising young people and abandoned spaces,” says Mireille Alphonse, deputy mayor of the Seine-Saint-Denis town of Montreuil.

An architecture studio is filled with light from all windows.

She is also deputy chief of Est Ensemble (“East Together”), a group of gentrifying Seine-Saint-Denis communities which for the past three years has systematically put out tenders for people to run plots of unused land.

“We decided to help them so that our towns don’t just become dormitories for Paris,” she explains, adding that the group was following a model used successfully in Britain and Germany.

Renaud Chateaugiron, operations manager at a new temporary open-air cafe by the canal in Pantin, just north of the Paris border, says the project might struggle to find a new site once its permit runs out in two summers’ time.

“Make no bones about it, before long there won’t be any unoccupied land left in Seine-Saint-Denis,” he predicts.

They should also consider Hainan, a good option for travellers looking for an easily accessible, still off-the-beaten-track vacations that combine culture, cuisine, and relaxation.

Hainan has plenty of beaches to explore sea, sand and sun. Among them are the long, white shore of Sanya Bay; the crescent-shaped Dadonghai Beach, an ideal location for surfing and para-sailing; and the 7-km-long beach of Yalong Bay, home of swimming, diving, resorts, and golf courses.

There are also fishing villages, the hilltop park on Luhuitou Peninsula, and Volcanic Crater Park. Nanwan Monkey Island is the world’s only island simian reserve. Nearby, Sea Turtles 911 has a sea turtle hospital while Haikou has Xinglong Tropical Botanical Gardens, which is home to over 1,200 plant species, including such edible plants as coffee, pepper, cocoa, and durian. In addition, the clean air, scenic landscape, and relatively level terrain make Hainan an excellent location for cycling tours.

For health-conscious travellers, there are traditional Chinese medicine centres and hot springs, some with elegant resorts conveniently built around them.

Religion and culture have left a visible footprint on the island. Perhaps the most famous monument is Nanshan Temple, home to a 108-metre high statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, which stands across a causeway in the sea.

Hainan is also a great food destination. Hainanese chicken rice, particularly favoured by Singaporeans, originated from Wenchang chicken, a local speciality, but Hainan may be even more famous for its seafood – especially Hainan lobster. Other specialities include Jiaji duck – sometimes considered Hainan’s national dish – as well as abalone and of course all manner of tropical fruits.

Last year, 1.1 million international visitors (an increase of 50 per cent over the previous year) visited Hainan Island. It caters to all kinds of travellers, from backpackers on up, but in the past few years the island has placed an increasing emphasis on luxury travel. Many of the world’s most famous hoteliers now offer luxury accommodations on the island, including Anantara, Banyan Tree, Conrad, Kempinski, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, Ritz Carlton, and St Regis. The most recent arrival is also the most spectacular – the Atlantis Sanya, a US$2 billion (Bt64 billion) project that opened this year, owned and managed by the same team that oversees Atlantis the Palm in Dubai.

Hainan is increasingly seeking to appeal to international travelers who have already explored such tropical destinations as Bali, Koh Samui, Jeju Island, Okinawa, and Guam. Newly introduced visa-free travel for citizens of 59 countries including Thailand makes it even more appealing, along with ongoing upgrades to the airport and an increasing number of direct flights from 200-plus destinations over the coming few years. Even better, Hainan has now given foreign visitors access to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, in which is regarded as a smart self-promotional move.

This 15-minute online survey is available in 18 languages and is open for anyone to do. The survey measures key indicators, such as satisfaction with life, access to nature and arts, community engagement, standard of living, life-long learning, and health.

“The purpose of tourism in destinations such as Barcelona, Brasilia, Kakadu, Luang Prabang, Kyoto, Yosemite, Mt Everest, Victoria Falls and other renowned places is to strengthen and support the happiness and wellbeing of local people,” says tourism consultant Dr Paul Rogers, co-founder of Planet Happiness.

“If tourism fails to do this, it is neither responsible nor sustainable, and local policies should change accordingly.”

Rogers admits that the survey results may show that people in tourism destinations are happy and that no major changes are needed. Either way, he believes it will be highly useful to compare reactions and responses to tourism and wellbeing in different travel hotspots around the world.

“It’s more about finding where there are deficiencies – such as having meaningful access to community fulfilment and feeling valued. The survey will show people where they are doing well compared to other tourism destinations, and possibly where they should seek to improve their lives,” says Rogers.

The Planet Happiness survey is a response to the fact that travel and tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries, with over 1.33 billion visitor movements across borders in 2017. Today more than 1 in 10 people are employed in tourism globally.

“The more people who do the survey, the better,” says US-based Laura Musikanski, a lawyer, sustainability process expert and Executive Director of the Happiness Alliance at happycounts.org.

Musikanski says that aggregated local and global data from the Planet Happiness Survey Index will be open source and accessible to everyone with an interest in sustainable tourism and community wellbeing. The project will never share information that could personally identity any individuals.

The Planet Happiness project encourages all residents and workers in Unesco World Heritage destinations to take the 15-minute online survey. The Planet Happiness website will post and regularly update results and share them with journalists, students, businesses, government officials and interested parties around the world.

Find out more details at http://www.OurHeritageOurHappiness.org.

IT TAKES considerable time to get to Mount Kinabalu and Sipadan Island, two of Malaysia’s most famous landmarks outside Kuala Lumpur, but Sabah State’s capital, Kota Kinabalu (“KK”), is a great place to spend the day. It offers a rich cultural heritage, lush landscapes and the turquoise waters of the South China Sea.

Easily accessed by a 15-minute speedboat ride from downtown, Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park is home to Gaya Island, whose name means “big” in the Bajau dialect. Unfortunately it developed a crime problem many years ago and went on the no-go list for KK residents.

Tourists race along the Coral Flyer zip line in Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. 

In the 1970s, illegal Filipino immigrants established a stilt village at water’s edge and then more communities scattered all around the isle. The state government has since cleared them out and is promoting Gaya as a re-born attraction of white-sand beaches and interesting trekking trails.

Just a few kilometres from Gaya is Sapi Island, now developed as a fun water-sports hub with more sandy beaches. This is one of the area’s most popular spots for snorkelling, even though some of the coral’s been bleached out.

Borneo Reef World’s huge pontoon features tourists a breathtaking undersea walk.

Seasoned scuba divers head to the isles of Manukan, Pulau Mamutik and Pulau Sulug, where the coral reefs are dazzlingly colourful and teem with clownfish, trevally, jackfish, barracudas, marble rays, reef sharks, seahorses, sea turtles and frogfish.

Floating between Sapi and Gaya islands is “the world’s second-largest pontoon”, operated by Borneo Reef World. It’s ideal for people who don’t want to dive but who do want to see the marine life up close.

Everyone is fitted with a helmet that’s heavy enough to sink the body deep in the water. Oxygen is pumped in through an air compressor as you stroll along a lengthy underwater path admiring the sea creatures as they dart or swim lazily past.

Once-troubled Gaya Island has become a popular holiday destination again. 

A climb up Padang Point on Gaya Island takes you to a thrilling but entirely safe 250-metre-long zip line, the Coral Flyer. Ropeskills Rigging uses the latest technology to ensure no one miss-zips as they soar 45 metres above the water at up to 60 kilometres per hour, all the way to Sapi Island.

The best views on the mainland can be found at the Signal Hill Observatory Tower, a two-minute drive from Padang Merdeka. From the breezy deck you can take in fantastic views of downtown KK and the marine park with its five islands.

North Borneo Cruise treats travellers to a twohour sunset journey.

In the evening, a two-hour luxury boat ride with North Borneo Cruise features a buffet of local and international delicacies and great sunsets as you pass stilt villages and beautiful islands.

The air-conditioned dining area on the main deck becomes a dance floor when the live musicians start performing, continuing until the boat arrives on the lovely, illuminated KK waterfront.

The Signal Hill Observatory Tower offers stunning views. 

A wonderful morning excursion to the Mari Mari Cultural Village out in the countryside feels like a voyage back to the Iron Age. Designed to conserve Borneo ethnic culture, this living museum has traditional houses that never did get electricity.

Five different ethnic tribes live in the hamlet – Kadazan rice farmers, Murut headhunters, Rungus witch doctors, Bajau cowboys and sea gypsies – as well as Lundayeh people who raise livestock and catch fish.

A bamboo Lundayeh house is graced with skulls. 

An old wooden Kadazan house has a remarkable design and functionality and easily accommodates a large family with its two bedrooms and living room. A rice barn stands nearby, most of the rice roasted for sticky rice and used to make a liquor called montoku.

The Lundayeh, expert in producing metal weapons and bamboo vests, live in a house of bamboo that’s decorated with skulls, signifying the occupants’ strength and bravery.

A traditional Rungus longhouse features more than 75 rooms, each housing a family, and a communal space where spirit rituals are performed and ailing people are cured. The residents are also gifted at making honey.

Murut villagers spend festivals jumping on a bamboo trampoline. 

The Murut also occupy a longhouse, this one surrounded by towering walls for privacy. Inside is a wood-and-bamboo on which the residents jump during festive rituals. A gateway at the centre of the house is only used when someone has died. That’s where the body is carried outside.

The village tour includes demonstration of cooking with bamboo, making fire, using a blowpipe and traditional dances.

The writer travelled courtesy of AirAsia and the Sabah Tourism Board.

IF YOU GO

AirAsia operates three direct flights every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday between Bangkok and Kota Kinabalu.

Check out the best rates at http://www.AirAsia.com.