‘Virgin Atlantic is to pull its brand name from Nigeria's national airline Virgin Nigeria and sell its stake in the company. Virgin's sell-off is the final closure of an increasingly acrimonious deal, announced with great fanfare, five years ago. An unnamed Virgin source told Reuters news agency the company would have until early July to rebrand itself. Virgin Nigeria could not immediately be reached for comment. "It is like the parent is now letting the child go off on its own," the Virgin source said.

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WThe newly elected executives of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria [FTAN], has paid a courtesy call on Senator Bello Jibril Gada, Honourable Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation. The visit came barely two weeks after the body successfully held its long overdue Annual General Meeting [AGM] in a bid to chart a new course for the tourism private sector body. Receiving the team, the honourable minister expressed his willingness to work closely with the federation and challenged it to do all within its ability in ensuring that tourism takes its proper position in the country.

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Taleb Rifai is the ad interim secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO]. He was recently selected by the organisation’s executive council to become the next secretary general. That decision is to be ratified by the organisation’s general assembly, which is set to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, this coming October. Rifai who spoke with our partner www.eturbonews.com during the recently held World Travel and Tourism Council’s 9th Global Travel and Tourism Summit, which was held in Florianopolis, Brazil.

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