Featured, Travel
The ravaging impact of Covid-19 pandemic did not spare the travel and tourism industry. Although, there are positive signs of recovery, the practitioners are of the opinion that more interventions from the federal government and the central bank are needed to quicken the slow pace of recovery in the industry, which is the gateway to the country’s international borders and employs millions of Nigerians.
By Paul Ukpabio
ABOUT two weeks ago two airlines were sanctioned by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority for violating guidelines of the country’s presidential task force on COVID-19. The offence, it was gathered, bothered on ‘accepting passengers for boarding that have rapid antigen COVID test certificates issued by laboratories not on the list of the ones approved by the authorities.’
Having survived a full scale lock down and the partial lock down of the economy for last year, the travel and tourism industry had wobbled on, struggling not to die a natural death or go into comatose!
Realnews sought out the views of experts in the industry to ascertain how far the advent of Covid-19 has affected the industry over the last few months.
According to Wasiu Babalola, an Associate Professor of Hotel Management and Tourism at Atiba University, Oyo, the advent of covid-19 has created a new normal for the entire industry. It has had its pros and cons, but above all the wonderful thing has been the resilience of the tourism operators and the customers. One of the things that tourism has shown us is the potential of the local market for tourism development.
“We know it as a statement of fact that last festive period, practically most of our secondary and tertiary markets in Nigeria were fully booked except for the primary markets being Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja probably because they are our first contacts with international tourism and this covid-19 has affected our international tourism market.
As we all know now, international travel is now limited to only when it is very essential, business tourism market has been affected and that opened business to those in technology where meetings which used to be physical are now being held virtual. Lots of applications have been re-launched or devised and this is a negative for the industry, particularly in our primary markets of Lagos, Port Harcout and Abuja.
Babalola insists that operators in the industry have no option but to look beyond Covid-19. “And what happened during the last festive period is an indication that we have potential in our domestic tourism. What remains is for us to be innovative around these products. We need to understand that the taste of the customer changes and we need to make our products compete internationally so that the customers that are presently happy to patronize our domestic tourism don’t turn around and change when the Covid-19 has been largely put under control.”
Frank Meke, a tourism consultant, said: “It has been a case of suffering and smiling. But believe you me, the industry is responding very well. There is certainly hope and everyone now has the mindset to live through the pandemic, ditto the business. More than that, the citizens believe they can live through the pandemic, the more they venture out. The problem is the government which has refused to inject and build confidence in the system. And once they do that, without setting the panic mode, certainly tourism will bounce back.”
The Covid 19 Pandemic has been a major blow to the industry. A lot of the industry players are challenged and we are not yet out of the depressed state.
“The pandemic has indeed pushed most of us. We see hope though, but not in a hurry. The increase in domestic tourism will invariably also affect other value chain in the Industry.
Susan Akporiaye, President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies, NANTA, said that the pandemic was still ravaging the travels and tourism industry in Nigeria.
“Our business is still suffering, we are contending with multiple taxation, bank charges on facilities that is not generating income as business is very low, it has only been by God’s Grace that we are still standing. We are grateful for the bailout funds th
at came from the government, but considering our numbers, it is so little.”
She appealed to the government to do more for the downstream sector of the aviation industry.
On his part, Dauud Gbenga Sunmonu, the Lagos State Coordinator of the Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria, FTAN, who is also the Managing Consultant at Complete Hospitality Services Ltd, disclosed that Lagos State is still taking the lead and will be hosting the 1st Tourism Hospitality Arts and Culture Economic Summit LATHACE 2021 at the Eko Hotel and Convention Centre with the theme Public Private Partnership for the 
Sustainable growth of the Tourism Arts and Culture Industry for a Greater Lagos. The event, according to him, is being championed by FTAN, which is representing the private sector of the industry.
For Jonathan Patterson, the Managing Partner at Dove Hospitality Limited, Lagos, it was a regrettable story of how things have nose-dived in a once prospering travel and tourism industry.
“The hospitality sector has been hit hard due to COVID 19, and the airlines, which provided a perfect delivery system for the virus, have been equally affected. However, now that the world has introduced a variety of counter measures as well as the vaccination, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Quite how long the tunnel is, that’s another question, which no one has the answer for yet.
“With lockdowns in force in most countries, closed borders and border restrictions, quarantine and testing requirements for inbound and outbound travel and so on, we have a long way still to go before we can get back to what is the perception of normal. Until then, hotels will struggle with occupancy, airlines will struggle with load factors. When I talk about airlines, I refer, of course to international not domestic. The routes in and out of Nigeria remain quite robust for international airlines, I believe, but this is not the case for the rest of the world. Also, when I refer to airlines as being the perfect delivery system, I do not refer to catching Covid on a plane, it’s the fact of people moving from country to country around the world obviously resulted in infecting people spreading the virus globally,” he said.
And Tarzan Balogun, who runs a boat and ferry company in Lagos, summarized it all in a sentence, “all our woes presently have been caused by Covid-19”.
But Chief Mrs Folake Akanbi, managing director at Libra Gold Travel and Tours, sees hope at the end of the tunnel. “Since the resumption of international flights last year September, traffic is gradually picking up though with some challenges of Covid-19 tests and different regulations for various countries. As a travel consultant, I always have to keep updating regulations for all countries to know which country is safe for our clients to visit. Also, the Muslim pilgrimage is picking and we hope Hajj will happen this year. As an organization, we start our preparations into the new normal quite early since May 2020, perfecting our operations processes, so we have been able to overcome a number of challenges faced by our clients. I believe with time things will get back to normal as we learn to live with the Covid-19 protocols.
