The outbreak of COVID-19, labeled as a black swan event,
causes significant damage globally due to its fatality. The COVID-19 pandemic
has expanded across the world by creating shocks in almost all the industries
due to the restrictions, curfews, stay-home and work-from-home policies, and
quarantines. As a result of the health and economic crisis with the COVID-19
pandemic, the tourism sector got severely affected.
Consequently, the travel tourism and hospitality sectors in
Nigeria have unimaginably, taken a direct hit with attendant tales of woes
including corporate bankruptcies and large-scale job losses.
Alhaji Nura Kangiwa, Director-General, National Institute
for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), said the International travel
restrictions imposed by most countries in the wake of the first, and now second
wave of COVID-19 has literally crippled the global tourism industry.
He said the International travel restrictions imposed by
most countries in the wake of the first, and now second wave of COVID-19 has
literally crippled the global tourism industry.
Kangiwa, who is also the Coordinator of the Hospitality and
Tourism Sector Skills Council of Nigeria (HTSSCN), said that the fall-out of
the pandemic on Nigeria’s Tourism businesses and allied operators have been
financially debilitating.
“The impacts on tourism business operators are such that
most of them are tethering between staff redundancy and bankruptcy.
“Most of Nigeria’s Hospitality and Tourism businesses fall
into the category of Micro and Small businesses; as such they will require
external financial support to ride out the effects of COVID-19 on their
businesses.
“Thankfully, the Federal Government of Nigeria has been
proactive and has since included the Hospitality and Tourism businesses among
the early recipients of the Survival Fund managed by the Ministry of Finance.
“In fact, I am aware that the Federal Government has started
giving some financial support to some hotels, travel agents and tour operators
across Nigeria.”
He said that the fall-outs of COVID-19 pandemic have been
adverse on the sustainability of Nigeria’s Hospitality and Tourism businesses.
He said that the pandemic has led to a systematic
transformation in the operational processes of most hospitality and tourism
businesses in Nigeria and across the world.
“While most Nigerian businesses in the Hospitality and
Tourism industry had to lay-off staff to enable them cut-costs of operation.
“They are consequently, massively, resorting to online
technology for their hitherto staff-managed, routine promotional campaigns,
sales funnelling and sundry customer relationship management,” he added.
According to him, one of the ways forward in a COVID-19
world is the deployment and adaptation of Hospitality and Tourism online
technology in the nitty-gritty of operations in Nigeria.
Kangiwa further said the utilisation of online technological
tools in the industry were now the new normal.
He added that if sustained, it would eventually increase the
visibility and efficiency of Nigerian hospitality and tourism businesses, as an
emerging tourist destination in Africa.
“As a capacity development institute for the industry in
Nigeria, NIHOTOUR has begun to expand the current syllabi to include hands-on
training and skills acquisition in the areas of technological tooling of
Hospitality and Tourism operations.
“Our mandate requires us to play such catalytical roles for
the growth of the industry,” he said.
Also, Alhaji Saleh Rabo, the National President of the
Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) said that the adverse
impact of the rampaging COVID-19 on Nigeria’s budding tourism and hospitality
industry is unimaginably catastrophic, considering the enormous contributions
of travel and hospitality sectors to the nation’s overall economic growth and
massive employment of labour.
He continued that, aside from the government’s fiscal and
monetary intervention measures, Nigeria’s tourism industry urgently required
transformational tourism development policies and programmes to both jumpstart
and sustain exponential growth of the industry.
Meanwhile, Mrs Susan Akporiaye, president, National
Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) said it takes professionalism to
run a travel agency properly because coronavirus pandemic has made the job
quite challenging.
Akporiaye said that at this stage, it was not enough for a
travel agent to obtain ticket, book hotel and do a tour for a passenger.
She further explained that the travel agent would deem it
necessary to check the place the person wants to go, advice if tourists are
allowed to come and COVID-19 protocol in that destination.
“If the destination is not favourable, we have to check out
other destination the person can go and have fun at the same time, it involves
a lot now,” she said.
She added that travel agencies in the country need
government intervention to cushion the impact of COVID 19 that affected the
tourism industry.
According to her, travel agencies deserves bailout and
palliatives they have for the industry to enable them to fill the gap created
by COVID-19.
“Whatever plan government is making for the tourism sector,
they should not forget travelling agencies as they are Nigerians too.
“We have employees we pay, in fact, most of us are still
paying half salaries and huge taxes to the government and as they are attending
to local airlines, they should not forget us. We need cash or tax holiday,” she
added.
She noted that the impact of the lockdown has been as
devastating as many of them could not pay their rent, school fees of their
wards and other necessities of life.
She added that many workers have been laid off due to the
inability of their employers to meet up, coupled with the fact that sales of
ticket were poor.
She said she is optimistic that the industry would bounce back bigger, better and stronger, urging everyone to be positive, in spite of all the challenges. - NAN