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Vice chairman and Chief Executive Officer , Federal Competition And Consumer Protection Commission ( FCCPC) disclosed that he was stunned by the level of media reach and influence of National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies ( Nanta) after meeting with association’s Executive led by Mrs Susan Akporiaye.
He spoke on the impact of collaboration and partnership as new grounds to work around challenges and prioritise innovation as key note speaker at the 47th Annual General Meeting Of nanta, Thursday in Abuja.
” I was stunned with the huge impact of nanta visit to FCCPC, a reach that gave us at FCCPC strong publicity milage, and for over three weeks, the news positively continued to trend, indicative that nanta is powerful, and can get a lot of things done for its members and nation at large” Barrister Babatunde Irukera further explained.
In an extempore presentation, Barrister Babatunde Irukera tasked nanta members to innovate or” die” if they don’t work around the various challenges facing the downstream aviation sector in Nigeria.
He urged and advised for critical study of the aviation industry, particularly with the challenges posed by airline trapped funds, to make hey in other areas such as hotel booking services, cargo, car hire services, and tourism, adding that understanding the depth of the industry value chain, technological growth and empowerment, will help determine not only how to survive but how to thrive.
” , And from what I can see, some of you here, about eighty per cent are merely surviving and twenty per cent thriving, so the way to go is find out how you can satisfy the needs of your customers.” He noted, throwing the challenge of innovation and reformatting the various semantics of the industry by nanta leadership.
” You have to innovate, reformat the semantics inherent in the sector, or die a natural death. And in all these, attention must be paid to Orientation, a kind of strategic campaign that can provide answers to the needs of Nigerian travelling public rather than seeking sympathy.” The FCCPC boss informed.
In what was clearly a master class on business intelligence and education, Barrister Babatunde Irukera posited that the global business environment has shattered tested age long business models, sorely targeting profitability
” Go target and unlock technology and find out why airlines do what they do, for instance, how tickets from Doha to New York is cheaper than from lagos to New ” stoked nosed up and fired; saying
” Add value and more value and leave other contentious areas to the regulators,”
Otunba Segun Runsewe, Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), also addressed the gathering, and thumbed up the leadership of nanta under the watch of Mrs Susan Akporiaye, noting that the recent position of nanta to right the wrong of outrageous airfare out of Nigeria, was well noted by the people of Nigeria, praying that the association should remain strong and focused.
” Mrs Susan Akporiaye is well known to us, a strong industry amazon and we shall continue to support and partner with nanta in the development and promotion of cultural tourism economy in Nigeria” he started further.
Earlier in her welcome address, Mrs Susan Akporiaye revealed that the association members were up in deep struggle from different economic fronts, a challenge that had pitched her and the association against forces that had made survival difficult for the members and the traveling public, and vowed never to give up.
” we shall fight to remain relevant, responsive, and strong. We are looking at other areas of the economy, particularly tourism, and to which we have launched the Africa to Africa Tourism campaign with a sister agency in Ghana , supported by South Africa Tourism. And come the month of MAY, a training tourism conference in Johannesburg, certainly will reveal our road map in this area which nanta members, will immensely benefit, ” she explained.
