We ‘re losing a lot of sales in travel business – Olotu

Mr. Daisi Olotu, Managing Director, Dees Travels and Tours Limited and Presidential Hopeful in the forthcoming NANTA’s General Elections speaks on the Evolving Role of Travel Agents, challenges and opportunities. He shares insights on the changing dynamics between travel agencies and airlines. CHUKWUEMEKE IWELUNMO brings you the interview. Excerpts

Now, tell us the difference between being a travel agent and being a tour operator?

Thank you very much. You can see a lot of travel agencies registering their business, travels and tours. We have a lot of travel agencies who are just into travel. People come to them and say they need to probably go on a tour. There is sport, health tourism, depending on what you want, there is also family tourism etc. So if you are a travel agent, tour is another streams of income. Because your core business is travel, agents sell airlines’ products. Also, if you are a tour operator, selling tickets is other streams of income to you.

They are interwoven. When you look down memory lane, we have travel agents. There was nothing like tour. But with time, tourism started thriving. When people buy tickets, they ask you, oh, can you book tour for me? Can you book hotel? Can you do this? That’s why we started incorporating tours into travels. Like now, you see Dees Travels and Tours limited. We have a lot of travel agencies who are just So, so so travels limited and that’s it.

And we have a lot of tour companies that just registered the name. You might not even know they are travel agents, but when you now ask them, of course, they can’t package tour for you and leave out sales of ticket to another travel agent, they will have to put everything together. Both are the same entities, they are interwoven they offer more or less the same service to clients.

Over the years, how has your relationship been with the airlines, both local and international?

Well, if I need to score the relationship, I would say zero. Our relationship with the airline has not been in the last three and a half years nothing to write home about.

Why do you say so?

Yes. We work for the airlines. And I want to say this categorically, in the past, when we do AGM, airlines sponsor travel agents because we work for them. They are our principal. And in our AGM, if our total bill of AGM is so, so amount, the airlines carry like 75% to 80% of our bills because we work for them.

They’ve always been there for us. But in the past three, four, five years during the COVID -19, 2019, 2020, we didn’t have our AGM in 2020. 2022, we had an AGM in Abuja. There was no single airlines there. There was no single airlines there, and I repeat, that shows that our relationship with the airlines has gone back to zero.

When you say you work for the airlines, what kind of work do you do for them and why is there a strain in your relationship?

When I say, we work for the airlines, you can see everything in my office, you can see airplanes, Dees Travels does not owe a plane, you see Delta, Turkish, KLM because we sell their product, we sell their tickets. In the airline business now, it is no longer tickets you sell, there are a lot of products that the airlines too they have that we are also selling to customers. That is what I mean we sell airline products.

Apart from helping them sell tickets and helping them to also expose routes that they fly, are there other work you assist them to do?

For instance for Dees Travel, when you buy a ticket from us, you leave in Ibadan, you purchase Virgin airline ticket and they fly early in the morning out of Lagos, Dees Travel as a service oriented company, we can pick you up at Ibadan bring you to our hotel, we take care of you and the following morning we take you to the airport to board, you don’t need your driver, you don’t need a car, we take you up from ground to the plane, these are some of the services that we have for our customers, that makes us a lot different from other travel agencies.

This is like a One-Stop Shop for Travel?

Yes, we need to include some of our services for customers to enjoy their flights. For instance, if you are coming from Ikorodu to go and board by 7am, you don’t need all that stress, the night before, come to Dees hotel, stay, let your driver go back to Ikorodu, enjoy yourself stay in the hotel from ground to the flight. Those are some of the services, we call it inclusive services.

Those services are paid to you not necessarily to the airlines even though they purchase tickets through you from the airlines.

If you look at some airlines outside Nigeria today, you buy a ticket, they will tell you if you need to do a carry on that is more than just your carry-on, you do extra baggage you have to pay, if you need to eat in the flight you have to pay, those are additional services as far as the airline is concerned and I can tell you, all those services we are talking about, you can’t sit and ask your money to take you to the airport, you need to spend money to get value and that is the value we are giving.

If you come to our hotel, you sleep there, we take you to the airport the following morning after breakfast if you want. We take you to the airport, board the flight and you are there relaxed, stress free unlike somebody coming from port Harcourt to board a flight at 10 o’clock and you missed it, you will have to pay more to change the flight to another flight because you missed the flight. Those are some of those things that we do for you to enjoy your flight.

In what form are the foreign airlines supposed to compensate you?

Yeah, this has been there for a very long time, most of the foreign airlines pay us on the tickets that we sell but as it is now, some of the airlines are telling us they are reducing the commission and some are taking out the commission totally saying we should charge our customers service fees, those are some of the things that we need to sit with the airlines and discuss when I become the National President of NANTA.

That means, with the service charge at the end of the day, what you get might just be a small fraction because I know you have to pay FIRS and other government agencies?

Absolutely. That is why we are even crying our to the federal government. Tax is taken at source from ticket sales. Tax is taken at source from our commission. The moment we sell a ticket, before they pay us our commission, the tax is deducted by the airlines, because the airlines would have to pay the government and give us the receipt. These days, there is no more receipt, they pay to the portal, and we see it there, that so and so airline on so and so sales is been reported to the government, and the VAT has been paid to the portal. But guess what?

Because of what is happening in the country now, we are losing a lot of sales, the government is also losing taxes. And that’s why we are shouting out to the government, look, you are losing a lot of money.

Have you met with the airlines to discuss this issue of commission, to have a rethink about it?

That is why I am saying this, let us follow the person that knows the road. I know what to do in that regard, by the grace of God, if I become NANTA president those are going to be in the front burner. Those are the first things we are going to address. We are going to sit with the airlines one -on -one. If there are more than 20 in Nigeria, we are going to sit with them one -on -one, and iron out all this, so that we can reach an agreement, and that agreement is going to stay, and it is going to remain permanent.

So that we don’t lose out, and the federal government will also not lose out. By the time we take all this to the federal government to see what we are doing. We have to ensure that government continues to enjoy VAT, make money from sales of ticket and they will have no choice than to support us, because we are actually helping the society and also employing people. As small as this our office is right now, we have number of people working here and this is very important.

Imagine if there’s no travel agent, this people will be on the street, either doing something else. It is the downstream of of the sector, it has to be protected, it has to be protected. And that’s why as NANTA, we have to ensure that it’s protected. We have to ensure that all the airlines do what they need to do.

You said government is losing money and the travel agents too, can you put a figure to it?

It is so enormous. I must tell you, I said to somebody last week that if we look at what government is losing, it’s nothing less than 400 million Naira in terms of VAT.
If you look at the sales that is going outside Nigeria, it’s in billions when you convert them to Naira. And this people flies out of Lagos, out of Nigeria.

We call it SOTI, they sell the ticket outside, but it’s ticketed inside because they are going to fly from Nigeria. There must be an awareness, the government must know all these things. If they know all these things, these are ways to block some of these loopholes and ensure that government is really making money.

Because if we are thinking about the money that some of the travel agencies that probably are buying from outside are going to make, it doesn’t add up. It’s actually not what we are supposed to make. It’s like working for somebody else to reap. That’s the way it looks like.

Now, the current foreign airline trapped funds, what impact does it have on the travel agencies?

I expected you to mention that because that is the number one problem. And that’s why we said we’re going to work with government. We’re going to make our own suggestions also to government. Let government look at it, if it’s okay, then, they can adopt it.

You are saying airlines should not sell in dollars, don’t collect in dollars and their monies in naira you refuse to bring it to them in dollars, do you want them to go away from Nigeria?

It is only the enlightened ones that are travelling and when you travel, you must get your ticket from somewhere and when you get it, there must be taxes that you have to pay to government. Now, government is owing these airlines and they are doing what they like, one, to recoup their money, make up the losses and everyone is paying for that as we speak.

Government must wake up to this because it is their responsibility, it is what they have signed to do. You have signed an agreement that airlines must be able to repatriate their money. The moment they cannot repatriate, its now a problem.
Am a Nigerian that loves Nigeria more than anything, let them sell in whatever currency they want to sell.

Currently, are they selling in dollars?

I wouldn’t say Yes, I would say No. Who is deceiving whom? I think it is high time we sit down and really do the right thing, if we do the right thing, the country would be better for it, every individual would benefit because when everybody pays their taxes accordingly, government would get more money to do a lot of things.

Currently, how much is ticket being sold and what impact is this having on Nigeria and and travel agencies, people leaving to neighboring countries to buy tickets outside?

That is why I say, we are losing resources, we are losing money, government is losing too not only travel agencies now. I made a booking for one of my clients in December, this my client wants to go to Houston. The booking I made was 8 point something million Naira.

On which of the classes?

Business class to Houston. And this man shouted and said, No, I cannot. Is too much? The man told the wife in Houston, book my ticket from there, Accra Houston, back to Accra, it amounted to about 3 .7 million Naira. Now we booked the onward ticket, Lagos-Accra-Lagos and when we added everything, it came to like 4 point something million Naira, a little above half of the quotes from Lagos.
This is to tell you that the airlines are just doing what they like. All the classes they are supposed to open for us to sell, they are all blocked.

That is the lower inventories?.

Yeah, the lower inventories, they are all blocked.

For how many years now have they blocked it?

Since the issue of this trapped funds. The moment the airlines or government say this, the airlines will look at another option, so I think it’s time for government to act. I pray that when I become NANTA President, we are going to sit with government and sit with the airlines, the airlines will be making their money, Government will be making their money, the general public too will not be too dip in their pocket. And everybody will be happy.

Would you blame the airlines for taking this decision operating on their own because of the trap funds? Would you blame them for it? Because after all, they need this money to also sustain their operations in Nigeria. And currently, they said, the money they get from other places, that is what they are still managing, to continue their operations in Nigeria.

I can never blame the airlines because it’s a business. They are running a business. You don’t expect somebody to be running a business and be making loses. I mean, there are people that are also monitoring them from their own country.

If they are not doing well, they recall them, probably even close down the route. Look at what happened to Emirates. Emirates, when they saw that, they cannot be using other station’s money to fund Nigerian station because of the trap funds they shut down. I can’t blame them.

But those who are still operating to Nigeria, do you see them actually leaving Nigeria if the trapped funds are not released fully?

For me, they can never leave Nigeria.

Why do you say so? Is it because of traffic?

The reason why I say that is they will continue if the dollar becomes $2 ,000, they will be doing dollars. So some of them cannot leave. When I look at them, look at the number of travelling population in Nigeria and if all of us start to fly from Ghana, Cotonou, we will overrun those countries.

That means Nigerians will be using all their hotels in Ghana, Cotonou Lome, maybe every night, like one thousand people goes out to Ghana, Cotonou to fly, we are going to overrun those countries with our own population.

Because it’s cheaper?

That’s what I’m saying, because it’s cheaper to fly from there. But some people, tell them is one kobo, they will not, because of the risk, it’s risky. If you start to enumerate the risk that people will go through before they now fly from Ghana, I am very sure you as a person, you will not go, you will not go there to go and fly. So the airlines from Nigeria will not shut down. But fares are expensive now because some airlines have left, they have slots. Look at the number of flight emirates had out of Lagos everyday.

Now those capacities are no longer there. So they have to fly another airline. And the more, you know, of course in business, when more people are asking for your services, you raise the price up a little bit and that’s what the airlines are doing and they are making more money. Any that’s why some of them will not leave.

Apart from addressing this issue of ensuring that the airlines do what is right and also government, which other areas are you looking at to address when you become the president of NANTA?

Yes, first, we will look at ourselves, we will do the audit of members of travel agents because today if you ask me, somebody will tell you tomorrow we have 3,000, we have 5,000 or travel agents are more than that. You see as somebody who so much love this country and I love what I do, when I see any news in the newspaper that concerns travel agents, I quickly go there and check.

People are quick to judge, people are quick to say, oh travel agents are all thieves, we have respectable people in the industry, these are some of the things we will control and correct. We have a lot of people, we call them portfolio travel agencies, we will bring them into the fold, we will make sure we train them and continue to train.

When you train people properly and you let them know their onions, they know these are things they don’t need to do and these are things they can do to make money and this we can’t do.

How do you identify such portfolio travel agents?

We will identify them, we are all here, they are no ghosts, they are in our mists. We will identify them, bring them into the fold, train them and make them responsible travel agents because at the end of the day, the story I was telling you about, the person I saw in the news, the person is not even a NANTA member, but people are quickly to judge that, oh, he’s a travel agent.

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Some of them are travel agents, but they are not members of NANTA, we will ensure that we train, we bring all those people into the fold. And then address the airlines. There was a particular ID card programme that one of the past presidents did, there is nothing stopping us from going back to having ID cards for every member so that where ever you go, if you need to identify yourself, you tender your ID card.

Wherever you go, if you are unable to bring out the ID, then you are not a member of NANTA, the person will be apprehended and be dealt with. We are going to walk in that area. Once we know the number of people we have, it is easy for us to talk to the airline, see, these are the number of people selling your products. You need to accord them, the necessary respect and whatever they need to get from you financially you need to give to them.

We now move to government. This people are all registered with the NCAA. When you look at the number of people that are registered there, you’ll be amazed when they tell you travel agents are five thousand, six thousands. We will work with NCAA to enforce this and everybody must register, they must know you. If they don’t know you, then you are not a travel agent yet.

We go to the media. We let them know these are the numbers of people who are travel agents in the country. So if you must deal with anybody that is not among these, please beware.

All the travel agents in the country, we would know ourselves. A meeting like our AGM, is a very good forum to sit, discuss other things, discuss on how we’re going to move the business to the next level. On this tripod stand, we are certainly going to work on it and ensure that at the end of our tenure, we’ll be better for it by the Grace of God.

Do you have any message for NANTA members ahead of the forthcoming election?

For NANTA members, my great colleagues, I want to let you know that I am contesting for the president of our association. And we need to think very well. You need to look at the person that knows what to do.

You need to look at the person that knows the road and let us follow. I hereby request that you vote for me, your issues will be on the front burner. We’re going to work to ensure that everybody succeeds together, we’re going to work and not going to enslave anybody. Some people that are coming, talking about this, they are looking at ways to explore and enslave you.

We, by the grace of God, we have served in various capacities in the association. I have served as VP, as a national financial secretary and I kept your money very well and as VP, I raised the bar, I cannot mention it, just, you know, some hundreds of thousands. But we raised the association.

We raised the number of membership. And we raised, in form of cash, I made this zone, millionaire zone. By the grace of God, I request that you vote for me and I am not going to disappoint you