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

Ready, set, let’s go: Delta gives customers more ways to reclaim the joy of travel

Global airline’s people-first approach continues with landmark moves that boost loyalty rewards, simplify travel and reignite the experience Delta customers can now look forward to industry-first loyalty rewards, digital tools that make it simple and seamless to satisfy travel requirements, more seats to more destinations, and new and classic onboard refreshment options. Consumer confidence and deman d for travel are growing as COVID-19 vaccinations accelerate, and Delta is welcoming customers back with new travel experiences – all while enhancing the Delta CareStandard health and safety commitment the airline has become known for during the pandemic. Delta is launching new digital resources to make travel planning easier, including an interactive map that is searchable by price and destination type; offering SkyMiles Members the ability to earn up to 75 percent more toward Medallion Status on most ticket types, including Award Travel, in a first for the industry; reintroducing ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sensational list of artists from 12 countries announced for 2013 Cape Town International Jazz Festival

Sensational list of artists from 12 countries announced for 2013 Cape Town International Jazz Festival Three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, New York Times best-selling poet and critically acclaimed actress Jill Scott (USA) joins the bill for this year’s annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF) as one of the headline acts. Scott, who had to withdraw from the festival last year due to filming commitments, joins nearly 40 other world-class acts from 12 countries for a line-up of diverse live-music from traditional jazz to funk, pop, soul and more. This year’s stellar event takes place in Cape Town on Friday 5 th and Saturday 6 th April at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). Speaking in Johannesburg, Rashid Lombard, Festival Director and espAfrika CEO said: “Jazz and popular music luminaries from every continent will be represented at this year’s event in keeping with the CTIJF’s ever-growing standing as one of the world’s ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

Air Seychelles to launch Lagos-Dar es Salaam flights

Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Republic of Seychelles, has announced the inauguration of twice-weekly flights from Lagos to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The statement by the company said the service, commencing on December 2, 2014, would mark the next stage of growth in the airline’s regional strategy. The statement said that the Tanzanian capital would become the third destination in Air Seychelles’ Indian Ocean and African network, after Mauritius and Johannesburg. It added that the route would be operated using a two-class Airbus A320 aircraft with 16 Business Class and 120 Economy Class seats. The Chief Executive Officer, Air Seychelles, Mr. Manoj Papa, said, “We continue to build strength and depth in our global network, and the addition of Dar es Salaam, one of Africa’s fastest-growing business and tourism destinations, will enhance traffic flow to the Seychelles and beyond, fulfilling our mandate to be a key economic enabler for the Seychelles, supporting tourism a...
Post a Comment
Read more