The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) has called on the Federal Government to caution foreign embassy officials over unsavory comments about Nigerian businesses and its professionals.
The call is coming on the heels of a video clip gone viral of a recorded television broadcast which captured an American Consular Officer describing Nigerian travel trade professionals as touts who must not be consulted on visa protocols.
The Association’s leadership described the comment by the American Embassy staff as very sad; encouraging the demarketing and stigmatisation of registered members of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA).
President of NANTA, Mrs Susan Akporiaye says, NANTA will take up the issues with its regulatory agency, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
She also calls for caution especially with the kind of comments made by the American Embassy staff as such comments can bear negatively on the fabric of private sector economic impact and effort.
Mrs Akporiaye disclosed that NANTA members as travel agents, consultants, and facilitators, do not trade visas but can guide and advice intending visa applicants on how to complete their forms and guide them through some technical requirements needed to apply for visas.
According to her, NANTA is disturbed by the insensitivity of the said American Embassy official who neither reached out to NANTA or regulatory body of the Travel trade in Nigeria to officially complain or report the supposed infraction before going public.
She urged, the Federal Government to intervene and request the Embassy to withdraw its blanket negative comment against the Nigerian aviation down stream operators, noting that no foreign embassy in America will go public in the United States’ to describe American businesses as frauds and asking the public not to patronize them.