Skip to main content

Nigeria Spends N300 Billion Annually On Hotel Accommodation

Nigerians travelling within Nigeria spend at least $2 billion, about N320 billion every year on hotel accommodation.
Travellers at the arrival wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport II Ikeja in Lagos.
Founder/ Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria's Online Hotels Booking Limited, Hotels.ng, Mr. Mark Essien disclosed this when speaking to Vanguard on the operations of the hotel booking portal and the potential of online hotel booking business in Nigeria.
Hotel.ng, an online hotel booker officially launched in January 2013 and has over 4, 000 hotels listed on its website and currently process over 400 bookings daily.
"Hotel booking or travel in general is always a massive part of every economy. Hotel booking in Nigeria alone is $2 billion worth annually. This means that every year, Nigerians traveling within Nigeria spend at least $2 billion, about N300 billion in hotel accommodation. This is a result of an independent verifiable survey conducted by Euro Monitor. So all we are doing is making this transaction easier online, so that some part of that $2 billion will be ours. I think we are sitting on a very high potential business," he said.
Mark however noted that despite the increase in internet access, a lot of educating still needs to be done to drive further patronage of online businesses.
"Right now, there are about ten to twelve billion Facebook users, out of the over 60 million internet users in the country, and the way I see it is that, if you look at the number of Facebook users and divide it by two, those are the people that are sophisticated internet users, people that will use a service such as ours. All those other 25 million may have 3G access on their phones but it doesn't really mean that they have understood how to use the internet.
"So apart from having access which has been done very well in Nigeria, the next step is for people to realize what benefit of using the internet is. This is because a man may want a hotel; he would just phone a friend asking for a hotel not knowing that he could open a browser and see all the results right there. So there is an educational process that needs to happen and when that happens, we will see a huge explosion in the number of people resorting to the internet for business services."
He also decried the payment challenge confronting them as greater percentage of attempts to utilize card payment has been failing.
"There are lots of payment related challenges in Nigeria. Only thirty percent of attempts to pay with cards work on our website. 70 percent of card payments are currently failing," he said.
However, with eight different payment methods, the firm has started working with other online payment processors to facilitate payments through every other means.
He further noted that the vision of the company remains building a strong and profitable Nigeria business that will extend to serve the whole of Africa.
"What we are staring now is a proof of concept. We are doing well, we have built a good Nigerian business but I want us to extend to Africa. We are going to build a Nigerian company that will be the biggest hotel booking agency in Africa," he said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Delta extends middle seat blocking through April 2021; Only U.S. airline to continue providing more space for customers

  Delta is continuing its industry-leading commitment to provide more space on board as the only U.S. airline to block middle seats and limit capacity on all flights departing through April 30, 2021, ensuring customers can confidently plan and book their spring travel. The airline has consistently listened to its customers and prioritized their preferences by offering more space through seat blocking and reducing the overall number of people on board each flight since April 2020. “We want our customers to have complete confidence when travelling with Delta, and they continue to tell us that more space provides more peace of mind,” said Bill Lentsch, Chief Customer Experience Officer. “We’ll continue to reassess seat blocking in relation to case transmission and vaccination rates, while bringing back products and services in ways that instil trust in the health and safety of everyone on board – that will always be Delta’s priority.” In addition to extending seat blocking commi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Things to Stop Doing on Dating Apps in 2021

Rivalry on dating applications will be firm in 2021, so you will have been behaving as well as possible  You must behave as well as possible, and with regards to progress on dating applications, what you don't do is similarly. At this point you should realize that nobody needs to see you holding your mom or father..lol  Exchanging numbers too early There are no firm principles directing when and how to take a discussion off an application, yet endeavouring to do so too soon can work to your impediment. No, you would prefer not to stall out in an interminable to and fro on the application where your talk will, at last, become mixed up in the middle of all your different matches, yet fatigued swipers might be hesitant to add one more "Matt Badoo" or "Possibly: Matt" to their telephone. As I would see it, numbers ought to be traded when you are prepared to make arrangements to meet face to face. Beginning discussions with "hello"   This won't go anypl...
Post a Comment
Read more

More vapers are quitting smoking, survey shows

More than half of the nearly-three million people in Great Britain who vape are ex-smokers, a new survey suggests. For the first time, more than half of the current 2.9 million e-cigarette users have since given up smoking, Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) said in its annual survey into the use of electronic cigarettes and vapourisers. Many vapers still "dual-use" combustible and electronic cigarettes, which means they are still exposed to the cancer causing substances in tobacco smoke, the study added. Ann McNeill, professor of tobacco addiction at King's College London, said: "This year's Ash survey finds that around 1.5 million vapers are ex-smokers, for the first time a larger number than those who continue to smoke.
Post a Comment
Read more