Travel agencies in Nigeria recorded a total of $151.09 million revenue from ticket sales in the first four months of 2020, a 45 percent drop compared to $282.36 million generated in the same quarter of 2019.
This significant drop was as a result of the shutdown of airports across the country in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Susan Akporiaye, president, Nigerian Association of Travel Agencies (NANTA), who disclosed this during a press briefing in Lagos, described the pandemic’s impact on global travel and the consequent impact on Nigerian travel trade sector as the road to Gethsemane, adding that it was brutish, unexpected and fearful.
Giving a breakdown of the figures, Akporiaye said for 2019, travel agencies recorded revenues from ticket sales of $57.79 million in January, $ 51.52 million in February, $80.55 million in March and $92.59 million in April, totalling $282.36m.
For 2020, the agencies recorded ticket sales of $70.03m in January, $59.16 million in February, $23.26 million in March, and minus $1.36 million in April, totalling of $151.09 million.
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Akporiaye explained that the pandemic challenged the very legacy of a united NANTA with its members not sure of what to expect, adding that principals of members bled and where the next meal and business would come from was unknown.
“To get hold of our members and situate a situation favourable to a possible rebound of the industry, we engaged in training and retraining of our members, knowing that it may not be business as usual once we were clear from the pandemic,” Akporiaye said.
“Our members were beginning to experience challenges and with the initial lockdown, border and airspace closure and banning of travellers to some parts of the world, particularly targeting Nigerians, we knew we had to think out of the box and give our members hope, opportunities and strength to remain focused,” she said.
The NANTA president commended the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, and the Federal Government which provided travel agencies with palliatives.
Speaking on the palliatives, Akporiaye disclosed that the committee that was set up would come out with sharing baseline and every financially up-to-date and NCAA-registered members would be captured.
