“The truth is, ‘What I go through and do to be happy, so many women out there can’t do it’”, Maryann, MD Bella Maria Travel & Tours
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| Maryann Nkiru Onuoha, MD Bella Maria Travel & Tours Limited. |
In this interview, you will read the amazing story of how a Convent trained, Reverend Sister to be became a travel agent, got married, have wonderful family with brilliant children, holds the family together in spite of her very busy schedule and passionately runs a very robust, successful and very busy travel agency. The story of Mrs. Maryann Nkiru Onuoha will reinforce to you that hard work pays. It also captures the values of relationships as great assets to reaching your goals and achieving your dreams in life. Bella Maria Travel & Tours is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), IATA approved and it runs genuine travel and tours businesses in Nigeria.
Read on…
Please, tell us about yourself, your background, education and your sojourn that landed you into Travel Business, rising to become the Managing Director of Bella Maria Travel and Tours Limited today. Was it deliberate that you’re in travel business or by chance?
What attracted me to the travel industry? Yes, it’s the need; the necessity of traveling, which I see very, very obviously in the lives of every citizen in this country. You know, while I was in the Sisterhood, which was the life I lived before I got married, we traveled a lot. I started traveling in 2003 with the Reverend sisters because they do a lot of travels for Nigerians who want to become Reverend Fathers or Reverend Sisters. And there is this volume of travel that is done within that congregation almost every time. So while I left and I couldn't become a Reverend Sister in Ibadan but I was still living with them there, anyway. While being there and also helping them in their travel solutions was still part of it, so, that gave me that energy and the mindset to go for aviation training while I was in the convent. So, I went for that aviation training.
So while I was there, I had the opportunity of going to aviation school at Center Point Aviation School, Ibadan, by Mr. Olajide Salayi. So, my mindset was that is I have families and acquaintances there. I had Reverend sisters and I remembered how many contacts I had there… So, my experiences with the Reverend sisters and Reverend Fathers and people there through traveling actually gave me a platform, a landing ground for me.
I remember the first ticket was that of a Reverence Sister Helen Lima. She was one of our Brazilian sisters there. I can’t even forget it; it was on the 8th of October, 2008!
You mentioned Italy in the course of introducing yourself. Specifically, tell us about your passion with Italian travels, tours, luxury and cooperation.
Yes! Italy is one of the most visited destinations in the world. People visit Italy for the purpose of their cultural values, their food, the winery and everything about Italy! Being opportunely to live in Italy, even though I was in the Convent is something I will cherished all my life! I even started to speak in the language before I left Nigeria. While I was in Ibadan, I lived with an Italian woman who does not even understand English. So I was forced to learn just to interact with her. So getting it to Italy, I saw so much opportunities and when it comes to this destination, the beautiful attractions they have. Which is when you first arrive there, the first thing that comes to your mind is the Holy See, the Vatican, which is the most popularly visited destination on the whole world because you see crowds and you need to get a ticket to get into there. And sometime you take them two days. Yeah, it takes you the whole day to get into the inside of the Vatican.
We have some places like the Cupola, the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome which we see on the TV. That's highest point of the building. That destination gives them huge revenue every day. There are different other destinations in Italy, like the Sicily. And then you have the winery. You have their food, which you can get anyhow anywhere. So people visit Italy for so many. Which are very important and very, very cultural. So Italy is one of my beautiful destinations that I sell very well.
Okay, what are some of the memorable moments in your career so far!
One such memorable moments in my career was when I was given an award, (Oh my gosh), as one of the Best Tourism Personality in Nigeria! You know, sometimes we do our work as much as we can and you don't show much and you don't know how much people are trying to be like you! People are trying to do what you are doing. You don't even feel like you are doing anything because it's something that becomes part of you and you do it with so much ease, effortlessly without even giving you any stress. So, when we I was called upon for this particular award, I felt so much happy! At least, it's a huge achievement in all this period of standing out, really promoting tourism and work effort to make sure that people cab travel as part of their hubby.
Moving forward. You’re a mother, you’re a wife and you’re an entrepreneur. So, what are the challenges you’re undergone as a woman in the travel industry?
The challenges... These are some of the drawbacks you get in the industry: Having a family, the business, your clients. Like myself, I'm overwhelmed with loads and loads of work; even with my staff, is not very easy because they are all busy everyday because I'm a translator with the Italian Embassy in Nigeria. I do and I do lots of travel packages for my clients, and so many people call me for flight tickets a lot! And most times, I get overwhelmed with my four kids with all their needs! Most of my kids are ICT - inclined! So it gives me tireless days and sleepless night. Because I do most of them alone due to three&⁴ of the nature of my husband’s job. I am trying to make sure the children become who they want to be! And with their insistence of ‘Mommy get me these, get me that!
So, I need to follow up with their homework and everything. And then parenting is one of the most lucrative jobs any mother would want to do and get successful on, because at the end, you want to see the result.
And that is how people appreciate your work. How much people appreciate it is that they get their ticket to travel and come back and everything is hitch free. So we make sure that all these things are done, regardless of the families that we manage every day. So, for me, it's a huge task for mothers out there, doing it and doing it well.
For me, celebrating my family openly and keeping my family together is a natural thing that flows out of me. It is something natural and good, because when you have talent and you have kids that also are very, very talented at what they do, you need to also try to encourage most of such things. All I do is to encourage other families because some women with one or two kids get so overwhelmed!
They will call me, like, ‘Bella, how do you do this? Bella, have you? I have a friend. She has just one child, and she kept crying, calling me, asking, ‘How do you manage? How do you do this? Like you have four kids, you always on, on, on, social media. You’re always happy, how do you do this? So many of the women out there call me every day. They cheer me up! 'Bella, I want to be like you. I want to be like you'.
Truth is, what I do and go through to be happy, so many women out there can’t do it. And I'm saying with everything, seriously, because I go through a lot to be where I am and to make everything work out for me and my family.
And, you know, I have a very wonderful, humble and respectable husband who supports me every blessed day, encouraging me to be my best. That's another most wonderful support I can talk about anyway, any day, anytime! I can’t stop talking about him because he's the pillar and the support why I am still very, very happy and that keeps me moving on in spite of the stress of the day.
I encourage the woman to know you can do it, move on. You don't need to give up. You need to bring out those goodies in you. You need to work very hard to make sure that the family is happy and carried along because when people say you are good at your work, your family need to also show. Your success needs to also reflect in your family. That is the most important thing. Whatever you do need to reflect; it's not about the talk, it's about the doings. So, that's why you see me always I carry them a lot because within my children can get the best talents a woman can offer the world.
Definitely travel business is profitable! So, how profitable is a travel business?
Profitable! Profitable!! Profitable!!! People have rushed into the travel business and rushed out! Most time is not about the profits! Yes, I said that because for you to get that profit you desire, you need to put lots of work. It means so much of sacrifice. There are things you need to do to get that money or that huge success that you’re looking for.
Some people have been in the travel industry for long but they’ve not even made any headway! Because it’s about the customers! It’s about the value for their money. Not just collecting one money from them and you do not deliver value. Integrity is involved.
So, that is reason when we say it's not about the money. No! You need to have that intention of monitoring value, delivering value coming into travel business. So, I got the passion, not the money. So it’s the passion that brings in the money. And the services you render, that brings in the money.
The awards Bellamaria Travels have won, do you think you deserve them?
(Giggles) We deserve more! We have several awards we didn’t even talk about! Even in my own personal life, apart from the industry, I also have won awards. There’s this award by the Catholic Women Organization. They gave me this award (pointing to it on her wall). It’s the awards, 'Pillar of Support’ this year! Because they said that this woman’s life is something else. They found out that there are some who are exemplary women. And they deem it fit to give this to me!
We satisfy our customers so that you always hear them talking about Bella Maria Travels.
Tell us, why do you love travel business?
Wow. Travelling is one of the best things that can happen to any person. Traveling gives exposure! Traveling is education. Traveling is love; traveling is your passport. Traveling is about everything because it gives you that exposure that you can not get from reading books or being in a school. It helps you to grow this superiority complex. It kills your inferiority complex in any case. My love is about travelling! I do lots of travels every year. On my Social Media pages, most of the time people are telling me that I should be given the Minister of enjoyment! This is because I don't joke about enjoyment and travelling.
Of course, I do this and lots of stuff, I meet people, I network. Because in traveling, you meet different categories of people, you interact with them. You know how they breathe. You know how they do their things. You know where you are, what you are, who you are because you have experiences with other people outside your vicinity, outside your culture, outside your country, outside your relatives. You are meeting with other international personalities that tell you how they got to where they are!
As the boss in your business, you have your staff, considering the volume of work and the pressures; so, let me ask, ‘What is your leadership style? That is, how do you motivate your team members to achieve your targets and to keep focused?
Every Monday, we have staff meeting and we encourage them to be their best in their work. Mostly, the translation part of our job is often a whole lot! This is because that is the part you need to pay proper attention not to make mistakes. Translating English to Italian and Italian to English, it's not something you just do. Your mindset has to be calm, you have to be very recollected.
So these are the things. And these young ladies I have, like, you one Chiamaka and I have the other girls; about five of them for translation and ticketing. In Chiamaka’s case, she is mainly for translations and documentations. The other girls collect the money, because people come in and pay and we need to register their the documents, and it needs to be properly done by myself and then pass to Chiamaka to proof read it so there won't be errors because that's what they don’t want to see. So it's a whole lot that we do in that office. So I encourage them every time to put in their best so they can render the best services to people. So many people are trooping in for that.
We also do a lot of documentation like citizenship, like a family reunion, adoption. So, if you don't understand, it's only between us and the Italy agencies that know about this. The process, of course, and everything, we need to translate those for you. We need to authenticate them, and we need to legalize the documents, just like some family want to meet their people in Italy.
For example, you have your husband there and the wife and children want to meet their daddy. We go through a lot of processes. We have to do DNA for those children. All of these children we will translate their documents and do affidavit to make sure! This is part of the proper processes and channels which take a lot of time, energy and intelligence to do. So there are several of them. So, you see it's a huge job.
So, how do you cope with the competitiveness and pressure? Rising prices of petroleum, fast rising fares?
Yeah, it's not been easy, you know. I found out the stress we put ourselves into for our businesses is huge! We all know that it has not been favorable in this part of the world, but we still strive to make it. As for that, we are really living in a very terrible situation because you have to spend all the money you make, as, all the profit goes back into expenses. Previously, for me using my car, I fill the fuel of my car before now with N9,000 every Monday. But now it’s up to N12,000 to fill that car! And that’s gone before the end of the week. So, imagine the profits, and imagine how much you spend on a weekly basis. So that's a huge sacrifice to me.
So, with family, work, stress and everything, you’re still on… What are your secrets? What's your strategy of handling the stress and continuing?
I do lots of gym. Oh my gosh! I'm always giving them back to back whatever is happening around us every day. And people don't joke about going to my WhatsApp status. Every time I go to the gym, like every other time I have opportunity, I gym out anger. I gym out the fats! I try to be energized with that. I eat less, but I work very, very hard to make myself Comfortable! Most times you see most of us happy, it’s because we realized we just have one life, and you need to enjoy every bit of it. So, that's why you see me most times, when I'm overwhelmed, I pick my bag and I go to any country; and I rest and come back and continue. I don't joke about that one, because you need to be healthy to see tomorrow.
What are the improvements you made in your business in the last few years?
We are still running our office in Port Harcourt. I started in Ibadan. We still have our office at Awolowo Junction, Ibadan. We serviced high tech industries in Ibadan and we had good clients and at least we made good living from our businesses before I got married. I got married, and I moved to Port Harcourt. Wow, I had this wonderful blossom in my travel business in Port Harcourt and my business experienced big transactions that really gave us that edge. I was able to set up my own house. I was able to have that and at least my own little luxury. We were good at that time and still good now! I had all my children in Port Harcourt before we moved to Lagos.
So, far what has been your experience and challenges travel industry so far? What would you advise as solution?
One of the biggest challenges in the industry right now are the discrepancies in the fares for tickets for the airlines! Many airline have their money trapped in Nigeria. This problems have persisted since this administration came in. The foreign airlines funds are trapped with the federal government of Nigeria.
The current challenges we have now after Covid-19, we are supposed to be having our businesses back … but it’s the reverse, that has been the case. We've been through a lot. The airlines are saying that the federal government has been owing them their money, their funds are trapped. It is the most difficult time to be in the travel industry in Nigeria.
Now, I mean. If you have experience of travel industry, we sell some of the lower economies like the E class. But now you can't see. So it's very, very difficult now; it's one of the most difficult time to be in the traveling business. For so many of us are already out of the business. So many of us are not doing much. Those cheap tickets of N350,000 - N400,000 are going for N800,000!
We are begging our Government to come to our aid. We've been on media protests. We've called the media and we have gone so far to all the ministries and all the departments that need to hear our voices about this problems. Our President of NANTA, Madam Susan Akporiaye is doing so much!
Do you have role models in the industry?
Oh, yes! I have role models! Yes, I have them. I have to talk about the person of Vice President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), Mr. Yinka Folami. He is a wonderful leader in NANTA, Lagos. You know him! If somebody want to emulate, he is someone to emulate when it comes to this travel business and doing it the right way. He will teach you how to do this business properly, how to make profit from the business. And how to do this travel agency in an orderly manner. My President in NANTA, Mrs. Susan Akporiaye, is my role mode and I also have Mrs. Tari of Now Travels Port Harcourt, by GRA by GTBank. We have been very, very good friends all these while. She got into the business before me.
All right, wonderful. You have traveled to several countries. So, if you have the opportunity, where is your dream destination in Africa?
That is Zanzibar! I’ve never been there. I’ve taken people there but I’ve never been there. And I bet you that anyone that has been there want to go there again because they have lots and lots of attractions. So, I’ve watched the videos and I think it's where I want to go! Now, by next month, I will be going to South Africa, Crotia, Boat Cruise, Italy, then I am back. But that where I will go next.
So, I have this energy and this inspiration of trying to look at our Africa one destination and I think it’s what we should consider! A number of us are coming up with ideas for a united Africa. Mainly West Africa! Connecting West Africa uniquely whereby you travel within West African countries!
You know, travel within West Africa, where you don't need visas. You don't need them. You can even travel without passport. So, we are looking for synergy we can have, especially in Africa, we have a strong passion for West African destination, whereby people want to do combo, you can do Ghana, Ivory Coast and Gambia, three countries as a combo.
So, partnering with so some of these airlines and their tourism board in their countries to have a unified travel experience. I think it would help a lot. We have a lot to offer!
Now if I want to give you a ticket to travel to any part of the world outside Africa, that you haven’t been to before, where would that place be?
I think Switzerland! I’d like to know why that place is called Switzerland! I think that's where we have most of these monies are in there. I think it's a unique country. You don’t see lots of this corruption, and they’re more civilized. And more. Yeah, I’d visit it soon because I think that's a place to visit. Yeah!
Thank you very much for the time. I appreciate.
You’re welcome.
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