Last year was the first full year after the Covid19 pandemic and revenge travel went on full gear in Nigeria. Since July all international flights in and out of Nigeria have been full.
So, the question most people asked was “where were all these people going to”?
The massive passengers uplift was caused by 1. the exit of a double daily flight by Emirate Airlines.
They pulled out of Nigeria because of their trapped funds. After pulling out, the UAE government stopped issuing visas to Nigerians. So, the huge Emirate clientele moved to other airlines.
2. The “JAPA Syndrome “. This is the exodus of highly skilled Nigerians leaving with families to school or work in Western Countries.
3. Revenge Travel, Pent up demand for leisure after staying at home for 2 years.
According to the National Associations of Nigerian Travel Agents NANTA Nigerians spent over $1.5billion in 2022 on flights tickets alone.
READ: Tourism: Africa’s Top 33 Tourism Destinations as Chosen by the Global Media. Do you agree?
So Atqnews decided to find out where Nigerians travelled to in 2022.
We sampled 5 of the Top 10 Travel agents who handled all the corporate travels out of Nigeria.
We also sampled the Top tour operators from Nigeria on the popular leisure destinations for Nigerians in 2022.
We also got Airline Passenger data to see where the volume of travellers went to in 2022.
We got an insight into where the “JAPA Brigade” all travelled to.
This is the first installment of our research findings. These are the Top 10 Corporate destinations for Nigerians in 2022.
The next results will be on the most popular destinations for Nigerians both corporate and leisure.
Dubai stopped Nigerians Last year over trapped money issues yet it ranked among the Most Visited places for Nigerian Travellers in 2022.
Wakanow is the leading Travel Agent in West Africa. It started as an Online Travel Agent a few years ago but has grown in size and wealth that it dominates the Nigerian passenger’s sales space. It now is a group with spinoffs that do other things. It is now opening branches in almost all the English-Speaking Countries of West Africa.
Sat Guru is the biggest Travel Group in Africa with branches in almost every country in Africa. It started many years ago in Kigali, Rwanda but currently with headquarters in Dubai. It has many spinoffs that are currently doing very well in Nigeria.
Finchglow has risen very fast over the last few years and is now a big group. The Finchglow holdings consist of Finchglow Travels, Finchglow Holidays, Travelden, FCM, Finchglobal(Cargo Agency and Lagos Aviation Academy( Aviation school).
It has four travel agencies, 1 Aviation school and 1 Cargo agency. There are talks of an Airline, FinchAir that will start operations next year.
Travel Start was among the earliest OTA in Nigeria it has survived and thrived over the years and today is one of the biggest agencies in Nigeria.
Super Travel is a great and popular corporate travel agent with an online spinoff.
These are among the Top 5 Travel Agencies in Nigeria.
Each one of them grossed over N20 billion naira last year.
