The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) has said it will partner with Ebonyi State Government with a view to boosting tourism in the eastern region.

National Vice President of NANTA, Eastern zone, Hope Ehogie disclosed this while briefing journalists in Abakaliiki on their meeting with Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State on Saturday.

Ehogie stated that Ebonyi State has huge untapped tourism potentials, stressing that the tourism industry had the capacity of addressing the nation’s job deficits if well harnessed.

According to him, they had a fruitful deliberation with the governor during which it unveiled the plans it has to set the state’s tourism sector on a path of economic boom.

He noted that leveraging the enormous tourism potentials in the state would lead to job creation, youth employment, poverty reduction and increase in revenue generation to the state.

“We had a wonderful session with the governor of Ebonyi; he was open and welcoming, we had to introduce the association, the plans we have and how we have seen the potentials in Ebonyi.

“Now we are setting up a committee to bring strategic ideas on how to influence and bring in new narratives to Ebonyi to encourage tourism and people coming in, how to influence the inflow of the inbound tourism which we have seen a lot of potentials.

“People think that when you talk of Ebonyi what they think about is insecurity, so, we came here to see that that narrative is changing and we will do our own part.

“We will be collaborating with the government with whatever plan they have; we will be bringing plans and proposals also to the state government on the areas they can focus on and we will be working with them to sell Ebonyi as a beautiful tourist destination.

“The governor was open and assured us of his full support; and, I believe that the nation should be ready for a dynamic Ebonyi and NANTA will make that happen,” Ehogie said.

Ehogie further noted that the association recognised the enormous potentials in the tourism industry in the 11 states of the eastern region adding that the body was committed to ensuring that economic benefits inherent in the tourism industry were fully harnessed in the zone.

“If we don’t bring out what we have in each of our 11 states, the world will have a fragmented picture about the zone.

“In Ebonyi for instance, you have commercial rice mill clusters and that’s a good platform for agro-tourism, people should be able to travel to the east, to Ebonyi to buy their rice; there is this fear of insecurity when you talk about the east, but we are here, Ebonyi is a serene environment,” he added.

Mrs Eucharia Ofoke, Ebonyi Coordinator of NANTA said that the summit was the first physical meeting of the association to hold in Ebonyi adding that members would be exposed to huge tourism potentials that abound in the state.

A participant, Mrs Chioma Igwe, representing Lofish travels and tour limited said that NANTA is an umbrella body of the accredited travel agencies operating in Nigeria and duly licensed to operate.

According to her, the association was responsible for regulating activities of practitioners and promote ethical standard in the industry.

She urged people seeking travel visas and other engagements with foreign countries to engage services of registered travel agencies.

Also speaking, Mrs Chioma Obi, Enugu State Coordinator of NANTA and Managing Director of JandsTravel Network and Jands Travel Business School said that the association was formed to provide a platform for regulation and protection of the industry against quacks and fraudsters.

“NANTA is body of travel professionals; each of us here has our agency and somebody who has a business, who is making profits from that business will do everything possible to protect it.

“That’s why we have come together, to look for ways to protect our business and some of the things we protect our business from, is scandal, from scams and from fraud because when these things come up it’s our business that is affected in one way or the other.

“Somebody who gets scammed today will look at other agencies as scammers.

“So, what NANTA does is to create awareness that there is an association that looks into activities of agencies, observes and checkmates fraud through knowledge and training, with the partnership of Jands Travel Business School, Abilfat Travel Training Center as well as other schools with NANTA Eastern Zone.
Whatever travel agencies in this case in the eastern region are doing,” she said.

NANTA, Eastern Region is holding its first regional summit in Abakaliiki, Ebonyi State capital.

The body undertook a working visit to the Chuba Okadigbo International Airport, Abakaliki and the Ebonyi Rice Mill complex respectively.