THE travel industry in Nigeria continues to mourn the demise of Madam Fatima Garbati, a top player in sector. Madam Fatima Garbati, who was one of the founding member of the Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) and former General Manager, Consumer Protection of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), died on May 31.
Fatima Garbati, before her death, had decades of experience in the tourism and aviation industry in Nigeria and Africa.
Describing the late tourism icon, the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) NATOP, Mr. Nkereuwem Oung, said: “Mrs Garbati was a woman of great courage and a warrior. She fought till the end. I met her in NATOP several years ago and became President under her watch.
“We called her the keeper of the mace of the association. She brought NATOP to the limelight and nurtured it till date. She was a tourism/aviation consultant. She was very straightforward and forthright woman.”
Travel consultant and organiser of Akwaaba African Travel Market, Mr Ikechi Uko, said the tourism and aviation industry will greatly miss the vast experience of the deceased.
His words: “Madam has been at almost every event I had since I met her at Nigeria Airways in 1993. She was a powerful personality, former Marketing Director of Nigeria Airways and later GM, Consumer Protection Unit of NCAA; a former President of NATOP, Mrs. Garbati was one of the few aviation people who understood tourism. We would be organising a memorial for her sometimes in July. Always at Akwaaba and a Top100 Women Award winner. We will miss her.”
Describing the late Fatima, Chairman, Carnival Calabar Commission, Mr. Gabe Onah, stated: “Goodbye, our amazon and an amiable, yet firm go getter. May God, the Most High, receive your loving soul! Adieu our Madam! Adieu Fatima Garbati.”
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