Sunmonu Bobola Oseni, chairman, Car Hire Association of Nigeria (CHAN) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, said business slowed down immediately after the building collapsed and has not picked up as foreign visitors have thinned out.
He said the tragedy at the Synagogue Church is "a big blow" to the Nigerian economy, especially at the airport as most tourists who visited Nigeria before the incident were always heading to Prophet T.B. Joshua's church in Ikotun, a Lagos suburb.
He said at least six out of ten tourists who come to Nigeria visit the Synagogue Church and many used their services.
"When the tragedy happened, it really affected the car hire service providers, because the passengers come from various places to the airport and we carry them to the church.
"But we just realised that since the tragedy happened, business has fallen," Oseni said in an interview.
He said the number of tourists coming to Nigeria through the Lagos airport has reduced drastically since the building collapsed in Ikotun area, killing scores of people, especially South Africans.
In the past, he said, almost 200 people were taken to the Synagogue Church every day in many buses and private cars.
"But since the thing (incident) happened, they just stopped coming, " he said.
His association, he said, has more than 200 members who now sit idly at the airport, waiting for tourists who have stopped showing up.
The church has said in the past that an average of 400 tourists pass through the Lagos airport everyday on their way the Synagogue.
Apart from paying for their flight tickets, tourists also pay for their visas, an airline operator said, adding that airlines such as South African Airways, Arik Air, Aero Contractors, Air France and Lufthansa Airways are incuring the biggest losses.
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