The forecast recently released by the American Express Global Business Travel predicts that air, hotel and ground transportation prices will see modest gains in 2016 in view of the slowly-improving global economy and stronger demand outpaces increases in supply.
The Nigerian economy is also projected, by many analysts, to make a slow recovery. As a result the travel business in Nigeria and Africa is seeing major investments as businesses position to capture a size of the expected boom.
Wakanow a leading online travel company that provides customers with everything they need to research, plan and purchase a trip locally and globally is making serious plans to give their existing and new customers the advantage and also maintain their lead in the industry.
In an interview with BusinessDay, Victoria Onwubiko, Chief Marketing Officer of Wakanow noted that, “2016 has only started and so far so good. It is unlikely that Nigerians will take a long break from travelling because there are so many options to choose from in terms of destinations that are not affected by the prevailing issues.
“As a business, we have ensured that we are diversified enough from flights to take on whatever the future may hold and had diversified by making our platform available for hotel bookings as well as other ancillary services like Tour operations, Visa processing, an international travel SIM service and the acquisition of a subsidiary company called Oya.com.ng, a player in the ground logistics and haulage business.
“Be it as it may, we are also aware that the government appears to be doing all that it can to better the lot of Nigerians, so we are hopeful of a brighter economic horizon for all business sectors in 2016.”
The company is not only looking to position itself as a major player on the global stage it is also re-enacting its brand from within. Good internal culture, it says, will give it the advantage to take on the global headwinds and at the same time redefine its brand to meet global competitive standards.
“Our innovativeness has always been hinged around using the best of technology and partnerships to bring a more enjoyable and more affordable travel experience to the Nigerian and will continue to roll this out starting with a brand new booking platform, this 2016, that is more customers centric and more adaptive in nature,” Victoria said.
The initiatives are already getting the attention of the investment community with many financial institutions expressing interest to partner with Wakanow. In view of the development, the company is planning an aggressive drive of one of the initiatives; the PaySmall Small scheme which is already gaining traction and is widely projected to be a game changer in the travel sector in Nigeria and also in Africa.
Recently, a major competitor in the travel business made a significant investment that has industry players on the alert. Wakanow however is not a stranger to competition. In fact, Victoria says such occurrences are expected in the highly competitive sector, “we are continuously on our toes to protect our leadership position and have rolled out a number of initiatives. We currently have offices in Dubai, London and Ghana and will be looking to further expand our scope to the United States and Kenya.
Our latest initiative called Destinations Africa will see us playing a bigger role in intra-African Tourism as well we inbound Tourism into Africa. We are prepared for competition and we wish all players the best in their endeavors.”
The present economic meltdown experienced by the country may be negative for most companies, but people are still travelling, hence the travel businesses may not feel it to a large extent. However, Victoria explains “there are indications that people may now be opting for what we call ‘Staycations’ instead of ‘Vacations’. We now build our packages to include quick getaways to destinations both within Nigeria and to other African countries. They are not as expensive and the travel experience is not affected by the usual foreign exchange problems.”
Wakanow intends to be a major part of the conversation to grow travel for Africa. In that regard, it has engaged various stakeholders across the continent to achieve growth or travel business.
“We believe that Africa has a story to tell, not just to the rest of the world but also to ourselves. It is interesting that people know Dubai and London better than they know Rwanda or Kenya and we believe it’s time to raise that consciousness to turn to and to appreciate what is ours,” Victoria added.
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