By  Dickson Omobola

National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies, NANTA, has urged the Turkish government to relax visas for Nigerian travellers, particularly those who are in possession of valid visas from the United Kingdom, Schengen countries, Canada and the United States.

The travel agents made this appeal during its meeting with the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, TURSAB, in Istanbul, Turkiye.

President of NANTA, Mr Yinka Folami, said such valid visas should enable Nigerian citizens to have access to visa on arrival without stress or the electronic visa.

He said: “We are pleased to be here and greatly appreciate your hospitality to my team. This meeting is hugely successful and impactful and we assure you that we will reach out to our home government over the visa challenges experienced by the good people of the republic of Türkiye.

“Again, we will use this opportunity to announce that Turkish Airlines is the official partner carrier for our 50th anniversary next year. Likewise, we also graciously invite you and your leadership to the event.”

Meanwhile, Vice President of TURSAB, Mr Davut Gunaydin, decried the constraints experienced by Turkish investors and tourists wishing to visit Nigeria.

According to him, this has negatively impacted the desire of Turkish people to visit the country.

He said: “We have about 6,000 visitors from Spain, about the same number visitors from Italy, but we are worried at the near zero tourism traffic from Nigeria with over 200 million population and noted all over the world for being one of the nations with the most travelled people.

“We want NANTA to help us change the tide, while we too will drive similar campaigns in our country for visits to Nigeria since we share strong bonds in culture, heritage tourism and hospitality.”

Meanwhile after the deliberation, both agencies promised to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to partner and support each other on tourism exchange visits, training and retraining, and to forge a united voice on global travel trade matters and to ensure improved revenue yields courtesy of tourism for the two nations.