Gradually, year 2021 is almost half way gone, but for practitioners in the Nigerian travel and tourism industry, the year has not yet started. The long night that started in in February 2020 when a hitherto strange disease earlier reported to be ravaging China, turned into a global monster that swept through the world, leaving behind sorrow, social dislocation and poverty. The most affected was the whole gamut of the travel and tourism industry that came to a halt.
And in terms of revenue, the collapse in international travel represents an estimated loss of $1.3 trillion in export revenues – more than 11 times the loss recorded during the 2009 global economic crisis. The crisis has put between 100 and 120 million direct tourism jobs at risk, many of them in small and medium-sized enterprises.
The same scenario is seen in Osogbo, Osun state, home of Osun Osogbo festival. For the first time last6 year, the festival organizing committee restricted attendance. Thousands that generate income from direct services provided during the festival were impoverished due to loss of revenue. From all these, it is very clear that even that though tourism is till at the developmental stage in the country, it contributes massively to the economy. Millions of Nigerians either directly or indirectly earn income from tourism and when tourism is hit negatively, it inflicts untold hardship on many.
“However, the sector needs financial injection. That means government has to assist practitioners-assist the hoteliers, restaurant operators, travel agents, tour operators and all that, by providing them with finances that they need to restart. Most of them have laid off workers because they could not keep workers who are not working. So, you need some incentives as kind of a buffer. Unfortunately we don’t have access to that in this part of the world.
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