‘It’s worrisome’ — travel agencies lament $550m revenue loss in 2022

The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) says it lost $550 million of revenue in 2022, due to a drop in ticket sales.

Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos on Friday, Susan Akporiaye, NANTA’s national president, said there had been an huge decrease in ticket sales among its members as Nigerian travellers lament exorbitant fares.

This, she said, led to the “$550 million revenue loss in 2022”.

Akporiaye also said foreign airlines operating in Nigeria had blocked all low ticket inventories on their websites and had continued to sell the highest inventories, making it also difficult for passengers to buy these tickets.

She added that airfares rose to over 400 percent on all international destinations and also led to job losses.

“The situation at hand has made Nigerian travellers to patronise agents in other African countries,” the association’s president said.

“Only less than 30 percent of tickets sold in Nigeria were done by local agents, with this, the Nigerian government is losing a lot of tax.

“To reduce the amount of money that would be trapped in Nigeria, the foreign airlines have also stopped local travel agents from issuing tickets emanating from other countries into Nigeria.”

Akporiaye also said the security risks to Nigerians travelling across borders to connect cheaper flights were also worrisome.

“Also, the shame of a parallel dollar monetary policy in the travel sector against established national naira monetary policy, ” she added. 

“We are also worried that none of our political parties have deemed it necessary to look at aviation economics, particularly, it’s homogeneous socio-economic and security opportunities.

“We advise the new government to follow up keenly on bilateral air services agreement (BASA) and other extant aviation laws which will open our economy to serious local and foreign investors, we also remain available for consultation.”

On his part, Yinka Olapade, NANTA’s national auditor, said developments in the travel sector have gone so bad that over 720,000 job losses have also been recorded due to the irregularities in the system.

Olapade said the travel sector contributed over 3.6 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the nation in 2021 but dropped drastically in 2022.

He, however, urged the federal government to look into the problems in the industry to guide against monumental effects.

“This industry should be taken seriously, it is a goldmine that is capable of repositioning the nation in different capacities,” he said.