The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) has invested N724 million in marketing Nigeria as a choice tourism destination in the last three editions of the annual World Travel Market (WTM), in London.
Mrs Susan Akporiaye, immediate Past President of the trade association, disclosed this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.
Akporiaye said that the expenses covered costs for the exhibition pavilions at the travel market, magazines and members’ logistics to attend the trade show.
“In three years, NANTA has spent N724, 226,100 to deliberately put Nigeria on the global tourism map at the WTM, this is with just skeletal support in 2022 and 2023.
“In 2022, La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort and Air Peace rendered support by placing an advert on the Nigerian Banner and magazine at WTM.
“In 2023, Ibom Air came on board to support. That year, La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort supported us with advert placement on our magazine but Air Peace didn’t.
“For 2024, the first time we had good support in terms of co-exhibiting, and not only on advert. We had Eko Hotels support us with advert placement while Ibom Air went beyond adverts to being co-exhibitors at the WTM.
“Same for Sabre Travel Network. So, we had Sabre and Ibom Air graphics on our stand because they supported us and we are grateful for that. They made the 2024 participation very grand.
“Aside all these, NANTA members have been the majority supporters of all our outings at the WTM, with 90 per cent of the figure from members. This shows that we are true patriots, we deserve a national honour,” she said.
Akporiaye noted that NANTA started attending WTM when it was noticed that Nigeria was no longer represented for 10 consecutive years.
She said the association also took the decision to attend the annual travel market in response to its mandate of creating new business opportunities for the members to grow their individual businesses.
“It’s been wonderful and successful three years that NANTA participated in WTM, standing in gap for Nigeria that has been out of the scene for over 10 years.
“The 2024 edition had our members, led by the current president, Mr Yinka Folami. I want to appreciate him for understanding that continuity is the bedrock of progress and development.
“We are glad to have handed over the flag and baton of Nigeria’s participation at WTM to the Nigerian government now. This was what we did in London.
“And as an association, we are happy to have succeeded in bringing Nigeria back to WTM this year. We are happy that our labour and sacrifices were not in vain.
“Though we saw the need to open up the horizon for our members to extend our businesses beyond Nigeria, we stood in gap for our country as well,” she said.
According to Akporiaye, NANTA is made up of trained travel and tourism consultants who take care of every travel need from transport, accommodation and activities which entailed tours.
She said NANTA had benefited immensely, haven participated in the travel expo for 3 consecutive years.
According to her, NANTA had secured international affiliation with tourism boards of different countries which had enabled the association to organise product training and awareness for destinations.
“Our participation at WTM has helped members’ businesses to grow sporadically. We have been able to partner with airlines, travel boards across countries.
“Our greatest achievement attending WTM is being able to draw Nigeria’s attention back to the need to begin to exhibit at the global travel market. “Personally, I have made partnerships that have made me go into full MICE events which usually hold in Nigeria and out of the country,” she said.