Renn Offor
Travelden, taking a big leap to join the leagues of international online and high tech-driven travel booking portals, in what the Chief Executive Officer, Lilian Obinna-Igwe termed ‘a great milestone for us as a company’, has officially launched its online travel booking portal, even as global trend in best travel and tourism business practices have gone online. Now, being technology-driven, travel business is fast moving away from the traditional methods.
‘Right now’, Lilian said, ‘Our expectation for business inflow is high even as several travel agents would find the platform very convenient and prompt in making bookings and resolving queries with the speed of light’. This is how she put it during the official launch of the travel portal over the weekend at Ibis Hotel, Toyin Street, Ikeja-Lagos.
The event had in attendance Mr. Bernard Bankole, the President of the National Associantion of Nigerian Travel Agencies(NANTA), travel agencies representatives, corporate business executives from Cornerstone Insurance, which is the Travelden’s travel insurance handling company, led by Mr Kolawole; Mr. Manoj Country Manager Nigeria for Emirates; Mr. George Mawadri, Country Manager Nigeria for Etihad Airways; Rashika Sunker Batohi, The Regional Manager, West Africa for Skysigns and Adverts; RwandAir’s Country Manager, Ibiyemi Odusu with Mr. Deji Popoola, a General Manager from Zenith Bank along with several other representatives from South African Airline, Tripmaster travels, adnil travels, the media and several travel trade stakeholders.
In her speech, Mrs. Lilian explained the painstaking effort it took the company to gradually and efficiently put together all the necessary technology and surmount the challenges of setting up all the necessary requirement for the company and to bring onboard a team of staff who love travel and are Passionate about the business; revealing it took them about 2 years to put everything together, saying that ‘the dynamics of the business is not for the big boys, as it takes so much effort and money.
‘We’re not just a normal travel agency, but an agency made up of industry experts, travel lovers the crop of staff is a mixture of qualified individuals who cut across the various sectors of the travel industry, traditional travel agency and well experienced e-commerce individuals’.
She went on to explain that Travelden is a startup and that as Nigerians know the challenges of a startup business, saying that, ‘We had challenges; but this a major milestone for us today, with all the challenges in Nigeria starting up a business. This business is capital intensive, and you need to ensure you have well-grounded staff to do the business with you’.
She shed light also on the significant of the name Travelden and its logo, saying, ‘This logo is very significant to us as our slogan is “Dare to Discover”. And saying that Travelden like a lion’s head which signifies the logo, is bold and daring. We pride ourselves in treading where nobody has trod based on our technological innovation and advancement
She revealed that the company has taken and would continue to takenwell calculated business risks based on good business processes, even as she insisted that the company is an agency to look out for; saying, ‘Travelden is set to standout in its approach to travel business.
‘We don’t just travel; we want to discover the world. We don’t travel to escape life; we travel so life would not escape us’.
Explaining the products of the company, she hinted that Travelden would be doing flight ticketing, vacations packages, car rentals, travel essentials which include airport lounges, protocol services, travel insurance and customized trips. She also said that the travel lounge is currently present in Lagos and Abuja airports only for now.
With a special focus on ensuring the best and continued customer satisfaction service experience, the company pays Important focus ensuring that customer queries are attended to within an hour, as the company would continue to work hard to ensure that. She tapped on the unique user friendly nature of their website.
Mrs. Lillian went on that travelden’s website automatically sends payment reminders at intervals to customers apart from the emails sent for complete bookings.
She went on a course to convince on the main reasons for any customer to prefer booking on Travelden, saying that the company boasts of staffs who are very knowledgeable and experts in the travel industry, and that booking via their portal save a lot of time because of the speed of their processes backed up by technology.
Others are that the company’s portal offers is a one stop shop for all travel needs, a top notch customer focused organization and their user friendly platform.
The company also presents a business to business platform (B2B),hotel platform, LCC integration, car rentals, travel insurance can also be booked from the website, and the company undertakes visa advisory, visa services and quick tellers on website bookings.
Mrs. Lilian concluded by encouraging participants to connect with Travelden by subscribing to their online newsletter.
Mr. Bernard Bankole, NANTA’s President commenting the initiatives of Travelden agreed that the company’s effort is a landmark event in the Nigerian travel business terrain. He said that, ‘In NANTA, we look forward to things like this, instead of doing it the conventional way; to wait for customers to come to us, and in that a lot of time is wasted. Travelden’s innovation deserves to be applauded. In the Association, we are trying to utilize enable to do greater things’.
The president went on to lament the current challenges of NANTA on the foreign exchange market; saying that he is aware that it is a big challenge right now; but that that the association is still doing business while working hard to address the issues.
Mr. Bernard went on to acknowledge the planned departure of United airlines from the Nigerian air space, but he appealed to the remaining ones to remain as he encouraged that with perseverance, the situation would change for the better.
He concluded by using the auspicious occasion to appeal to other travel agencies which have not joined NANTA to become members. This is as he revealed that the association is upgrading its members profile so as to be able to give them necessary and needed support.