Susan Akporiaye is the immediate past president, National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies(NANTA). She is the lead contact person for NANTA participation at the biggest global travel and tourism trade exhibition, the world travel (WTM) which will take place in London, November 5th to 7th, 2024. An industry amazon and influencer, effervescent, and engaging, Mrs Susan Akporiaye explains why NANTA is Nigeria cultural tourism centric.

ALL ROADS TO LONDON The global travel and tourism trade market keeps evolving, and if any serious organisation or nation is serious about learning new things, and up in the know of innovation, certainly the world travel market is the place to be. In our case in NANTA, we thought through the issue about three years ago and did not wait to be told how to create and add value to our members who are hungry to break new grounds, connect to the world and leave a legacy for generations unborn. NANTA is ready to attend WTM and no stopping us.

WHAT INSPIRES NANTA? The love for our country and people. We believe Nigeria is too big and blessed with unique cultural tourism offerings far more engaging and transformatively virgin, with narratives that the world is waiting to hear from us. It was not easy to take the gamble, the willpower to stand in a gap when Nigeria as a nation failed to fly our flag at such fora for over seven years. Between 2006 and 2015, Nigeria was everywhere, WTM, ITB Berlin, Arab Travel market, Fitur in Spain. However, at some point, the music stopped so to say and we become a stranger to the global tourism trade community. This hurts our business, the image of the country and our ranking in global tourism business. While smaller and less endowed countries in Africa were consistent, Nigeria spent time explaining our absence, which we found unacceptable. So, like Alhaji Aliko Dangote did by building a refinery to help Nigeria produce cheaper fuel, we at nanta took to the same patriotic efforts to give Nigeria a face and a voice which we have done consistently for the past two years, indeed this outing makes it the third time we have paid our way to promote and market our dear country at WTM.

RESPONSE FROM NANTA MEMBERS it is incredible, unbelievable, inspiring, and take my words for it, NANTA members are the best of Nigerians you can get anywhere, ever willing to be proudly Nigerian, sacrificial, dedicated and committed to contributing to a greater and better Nigerian cultural tourism economy. To NANTA, WTM is an intentional project to help our country.

ANY CHALLENGES So far, so good. We have prepared our members to know what to do out there in London. Our training team is one of the best in the industry, and we are not leaving anything to chances. We keep on reviewing our strategies, and even while we are out there, our major focus is to market Nigeria first, then create opportunities for business links for our members. NANTA does it in style, swag and best of Nigerian hospitality. Initially, our challenge was the huge number of our delegates, but we have turned that around to advantage, and in this game, the more, the merrier. It is a win-win situation for our country and pray other associations or groups should emulate NANTA. We are happy to show love to our country; it is our creed to be Nigeria centric.