By Frank Meke.
Sometimes, history is made out of ashes. When hope is held on the tapestry of faith and strength. History comes out of the cloud of determination and grit and is usually owned by those who must put their backs to the wall to push forward and conquer.
Thursday, February 22, the main hall of the prestigious Sheraton hotel Ikeja, was literally overrun by members of National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) who came to be part of a history dressed in peaceful attire, a dream turned into reality.
Since the advent of COVID 19, and now, the Nigerian travel community has gone through one of most excruciating time outs, looking out for bailouts, for a Messiah.
For Nigerian travel trade professionals, those with little faith collapsed their shops and the resilient ones held strong, praying and waiting for a breakthrough.
In the global travel space, Nigeria has no strategic presence despite being one the life wire, the artery for the survival of foreign airlines operating in Nigeria.
Our flag was torn to pieces, to shreds in the most despicable manner, and the attempts at the center to fly us a national carrier was taken to ridiculous adventure.
We were literally at the mercy of foreign airlines who are in business not to show mercy. And since the currency of trade in this business to which Nigerians are known patrons, is in dollars, Nigerians, particularly those with children schooling abroad and those with medical tourism challenges, grumbled to access travel opportunities.
There’s no doubt that global travel is business and also enamored in high wire socioeconomic and political tapestry, nations, even smaller geographical entities, would fly their flag not just for pride but to check and keep their eyes on capital flights which is germane to sustaining a healthy economy.
To Nigerian travel trade operators, one of the accusations against their trade revolves around being the drivers of foreign exchange flights out of the country, yet those who parade such narratives forget that any trade such as sales of air tickets must be done in naira and not in any foreign currency.
