As the Calabar Carnival marks its 20th anniversary, it has evolved beyond a cultural spectacle into one of Nigeria’s most enduring experiments in culture-led economic development. What began in 2005 as a state-led effort to reposition Cross River as a tourism destination has evolved into Africa’s largest street party, and a quiet economic engine powering hotels, transport, retail, artisanship, and thousands of informal livelihoods. It is also giving credence to how culture can create commerce, jobs, and identity in an economy searching for diversification.
Carnival as an Economic Engine
When former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, launched the Calabar Carnival, he envisioned tourism as a driver of the state’s economy. Twenty years down the line, the carnival and the numbers it drives into Cross River State every December tell a compelling story. According to the Chairman of the Cross River State Tourism Bureau, Gabe Onah, speaking exclusively to this author, the carnival now attracts over two million visitors annually, including domestic tourists and Nigerians from the diaspora.
The manager of Naks Hotel, Calabar, Ntongha Martins Ikpi, said his facility is usually fully booked one month ahead of the carnival because it is located along Marian Road, close to the Carnival Adjudication Point, where the governor and most VIPs usually sit to watch the parade.
The story is similar to that of transport operators who also report a significant surge in the demand for their services. Commercial drivers, boat operators along the Calabar River, tricycle riders, and ride-hailing drivers experience their highest earnings of the year during carnival season. Similarly, airlines increase flights into the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar, while inter-state bus operators report full bookings from Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Uyo.
Local restaurants, bars and roadside food vendors report increased demand for their services , even as grilled fish sellers, suya joints, and palm wine tappers work late into the night as revelers spill from carnival routes into neighbourhoods. For small-scale traders, the carnival is not entertainment — it is survival. “I save money all year to stock up for December,” says Blessing Okon, who sells beaded accessories and carnival souvenirs. “In one week, I can make what I won’t make in three months.”
Economists often describe such spending as festival-induced multiplier effects, where money circulates rapidly through local economies, benefiting both formal and informal actors.
Official data from the Cross River State Tourism Bureau backs up these claims. According to the 2024 Calabar Festival & Carnivals Report, a total of 613,000 visitors, spectators, and tourists were physically present on the day of the Carnival, comprising 4,333 revelers in competing bands, 456,000 local spectators, and 14,710 foreign spectators from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon. This is in addition to the 3.8 million views on the live stream of the Carnival via Calabar Blog.
In terms of spectators’ direct spending during the celebration, the bureau reported a N27,000 per visitor spending covering food and beverage at N5,000, gifts/souvenir at N3,000, Communication N1,000, Transportation N1,200, accommodation N15,000, and others at N2,000.
For hotel occupancy, the bureau reported a surge from 19.2% in September to 22.76 in October, 46.95 in November, and 68.14% in December 2024.
The report also listed sponsors to include Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, MTN, First Bank, DSTV, Nigerian Breweries, Afrexim Bank, Minimie Instant Noodles, as well as Pepsi-Cola, among others. This goes to show that beyond the reveling platoons of the carnival, there’s a return on investment for brands.
From the above, the greatest beneficiaries in the peak period are hotels, food and beverage vendors, transport operators, local pubs, and souvenir vendors. On the flip side, the least beneficiaries are those who sell items outside these areas, such as boutiques, furniture, household items, among others.
Diaspora Participation and Cultural Exchange
One of the carnival’s most significant contributions is diaspora tourism. Nigerians living abroad increasingly time their annual visits to coincide with the carnival, bringing with them foreign currency spending and global exposure.
Tour operators in Calabar confirm growing interest from Nigerian communities in the UK, the United States, and Canada. Many return not just as spectators but as participants in carnival bands, reconnecting with culture through dance, costume, and shared identity. This has further received a boost with the introduction of the Carnival Band by the Cross River State Diaspora Commission.
In a chat with this author, the Chairman of the commission, Prince Otu Okor, said the band is dedicated to accommodating diaspora guests who have, over time, desired to join the carnival float, but are not registered in any of the competing bands.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), diaspora tourism plays a crucial role in cultural sustainability, as it blends emotional attachment with economic contribution — a model the Calabar Carnival has quietly perfected.
Jobs, Skills, and Community Participation
Beyond the tourism benefits that the hospitality and transport sectors record, the carnival creates thousands of short-term and long-term jobs. Costume designers, tailors, choreographers, makeup artists, carpenters, sound engineers, and event planners all find work months before December. For young people, carnival participation offers skills development and creative exposure often unavailable in formal employment markets. “I started as a volunteer dancer,” recalls Ita Bassey, now a professional choreographer. “Today, carnival pays my rent and my team’s income.” Community groups, cultural troupes, and local artisans are also integrated into the planning and performance structure, ensuring that the event does not remain an elite spectacle detached from local realities.
Challenges Beyond Colour & Commerce
Despite its colour, pageantry, and economic promise, Carnival Calabar also comes with significant challenges that affect different stakeholders in distinct ways.
For organisers, the sheer scale of the carnival is both its strength and its biggest test. Attendance often exceeds projections, stretching logistics around crowd control, traffic flow, staging, and coordination. Limited funding from both the state government and a few sponsors, compared to the growing ambition of the festival, puts pressure on planning, security arrangements, and infrastructure, while gaps in professional event management capacity sometimes affect efficiency.
On the part of participants and visitors, accommodation remains a recurring challenge, as hotels fill up quickly and prices spike during the carnival period. Overcrowding along parade routes can limit mobility and comfort, while heavy security checkpoints, though meant to ensure safety, sometimes lead to delays and complaints.
Residents often experience the carnival most ambivalently. While many benefit economically, others contend with disrupted routines due to road closures, restricted movement, and noise. ‘While many vendors along the carnival route sell out easily, I am struggling to achieve the same result because road blockages usually shut out my premises”, says Queensley Offiong, a local food vendor
There are also fears around increased crime during peak festivities, with reports of phone snatching/pickpocketing, rising living costs, and cultural debates over costumes or performances some consider inappropriate.
The Sustainability Question
Apart from the above-mentioned challenges, the Carnival also faces the challenge of sustainability. To sustain it beyond its December peak, analysts say the festival must be repositioned from a once-a-year event into a structured, year-round cultural and economic asset. This requires clear policy direction, institutional continuity, and stronger private-sector participation.
For Iyali Peter (Ph.D), investment in permanent cultural infrastructure, particularly a Carnival and Creative Arts Village developed through public-private partnerships, is essential. This, he says, would enable continuous exhibitions, performances, training programmes, and cultural markets, generating steady income and employment beyond the festive season.
The head of the Journalism & Media Studies department, University of Calabar, Barr. (Dr.) Ukam I. Ngwu says policy support for skills development through a Carnival Academy or creative training programmes would strengthen professional capacity in costume design, choreography, event production, and cultural entrepreneurship, while creating pathways for youth employment.
To reduce dependence on public funding, a marketing consultant with Apex Consulting Ltd, Paula Nandi-Esom believe that the government should actively promote long-term private sponsorship and investment, using incentives such as branding rights, co-owned events, and tax reliefs to attract corporate partners and stabilise funding.
She adds that calendar diversification and digital monetisation should be prioritised, noting that quarterly themed events, mini-carnivals, and cultural markets can spread tourism inflows across the year, while digital content distribution and international broadcasting partnerships can expand revenue and global reach.
A Model for Nigeria and Africa?
The Calabar Carnival offers a powerful lesson for Nigeria and the continent, which is that culture is not a luxury, but an economic resource. From Osun-Osogbo to Argungu Fishing Festival, and from Durbar in the North to Timkat in Ethiopia, Africa is rich in cultural capital. What Calabar demonstrates is that with political will, planning, and community buy-in, festivals can drive tourism recovery, local enterprise, and global visibility. As Nigeria seeks alternatives to oil dependence, the carnival’s 20-year journey stands as proof that music, dance, and identity can generate jobs, revenue, and pride.
As The Curtains Draw
As the last floats roll past and the streets are swept clean, what remains is not just memory — but income earned, businesses sustained, and a city momentarily transformed by possibility. Twenty years on, the Calabar Carnival has shown that Africa does not lack ideas, colour, or talent. What it often lacks is continuity, policy discipline, and long-term planning. If those gaps are closed, festivals like Carnival Calabar can evolve from annual spectacles into sustainable creative economies—models capable of generating jobs, pride, and revenue long after December ends.
