NANTA Seeks SON’s Intervention On Ticket Sales By Foreign Airlines
The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) has sought the opinion of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) on the foreign airlines’ competing with registered travel agents on the distribution and marketing of tickets channel ecosystem.
Mr. Yinka Folami, President, NANTA, stated this in a statement by the association’s media consultant.
According to Folami, it was necessary for SON to ensure strict adherence to international best practices in ticket sales and appealed to the organization to throw more light on the alleged infraction by the foreign airlines.
Folami regretted that the foreign airlines are setting up city offices in the country in contrary to the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) arrangement they signed with the Federal Government.
He said: “We are gathered here to discuss international best practices in the tourism industry, and it is clear that NANTA duly wishes to seek clarification on what should be the best practice relationship between a principal and an agent, because we have seen in Nigeria where our principles set up city offices contrary to BASA, offer direct special deals to our clients, thus cutting travel practitioners off the chain and denying the travelller of the opportunity of the service of a professional travel advisor.”
In her response, Chidinma Ewuzie, Conformity Assessment Officer, SON, acknowledged that such interventions were necessary to critical understanding of global best practices in service delivery, but pointed out that the International Standards Organisation, the world body grouped travel services under another category.
She, however, promised that SON may put together a sub-travel trade sector workshop in collaboration with NANTA to properly define the very troubling scenario in Nigeria that may impact negatively on service delivery in the travel trade sector.
“We shall take note and work around it. Cargo services, for instance, are captured under best practices ecosystem, and we sure can discuss the travel trade services template through a focal workshop,” she said.
