This month, TravelTank, one of the top online travel agencies in Nigeria, marks its one-year anniversary.
The business has built a stellar reputation in just one year for providing Nigerians with a huge selection of travel products online.
Since its launch in 2021, tech travel agency, TravelTank has been on a mission to make travel planning and bookings quick, fun and affordable using technology.
Founded on September 16th 2021, the company is contributing to the tourist environment by making travel opportunities accessible to everyone.
In a bid to further establish its stake and contributions to the Nigerian travel ecosystem, the company celebrated its 1st Anniversary by organizing a Webinar series on Friday, September 16th 2022 titled, TravelTank @1: Revitalizing the post-covid online travel experience.
Mr Charles C. Chukwujekwe, the CEO of Travel Quest Limited, Ms. Annabel Bonney, Founder of Travevo travel & migration and Travevo properties, Oluwabunmi Abe The founder of EasyTravelsConnect, Tochi Margaret Umezinwa is the Director of Fly up Travel and Tours Limited and Henry Tugbiyele Founder and CEO of Expatico and Yemi Smith, CEO of TravelTank were on the Webinar panel to drive conversations around stimulating post-covid travel solutions in Nigeria and across the globe.
While speaking on resolving past challenges in the tourist industry, Founder and CEO of Expatico, Henry Tugbiyele stated, “one thing we cannot take away is that humans need to travel. There must be movement. Before the pandemic local tourism was not in the spotlight and during the pandemic that part of tourism suffered”.
According to Tugbiyele, the travel industry has to refocus on home first, in his words, “There must be provision to get people to appreciate Nigeria as a destination”.
Charles Chukwujekwe buttressed the point stating, “we cannot make local tourism happen without the serious input of the government. Covid-19 exposed us to a lot of uncertainties and if we focus our attention on local tourism, we would reduce the FX problem we are struggling with today”.
Mr Smith, CEO, TravelTank contributed thus, “Partnership is definitely key. We need to develop strong partnerships amongst ourselves. Yes, we need the government’s help, but at the same, we travel agents need to look inwards and develop partnerships with each other to allow inbound tourism to scale and flourish. A lot of us are distanced and in different regions, so it will take value-laced collaboration to make local tourism truly flourish in the country”.
Within its first year, TravelTank’s business growth has extended exponentially. From 5 travel sharks to over 20 hungry travel sharks. From less than 7 flight bookings in September 2021 to well over 10,000 bookings to date as well as an increase in its affiliate membership base from 20 to over 278 to date.
“It has been an incredible run, and we are thrilled that our customers value our online offerings,” said Mr Smith. “Our company views the occasion of our one-year anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on the lessons we have learnt as a whole and to reaffirm our vision for the online travel industry for the coming year and beyond,” he said.
Branching out, from independent flight booking services at the beginning of 2022, to providing other travel supplementary services to its ever-growing clientele, TravelTank now connects its affiliate members to other value-added travel services thus empowering more and more small business units within the travel industry.
“Throughout Nigeria, we have partnered with some wonderful travel agents. While it has been challenging at times with an uncertain economy, especially due to the pandemic, our focus has always been to provide our affiliates access to a wide range of travel products online with impressive rates,” TravelTank’s Affiliate Manager said. As indicative of TravelTank’s anniversary theme, “Sailing the Horizons”, The online travel agency envisions a world in which travel consumers can quickly research, plan, and book their travel using the power of technological innovation while saving time and money. TravelTank’s universal goal is to ensure everyone enjoys a seamless travel experience by utilising its cutting-edge tech platforms to spearhead the country’s shift towards sustainable online travel.
“Today marks a very momentous day for TravelTank. There is so much more to come. This is just the beginning” Mr. Smith summarized.
