By Chinedu Eze
A rising travel management agency, Ashton and Dave, has launched its digital portal, known as flyboku.com, which aims to cater for the need of every traveller.
The Founder and Chairman of the company, Abiola Lawal said at the unveiling of the portal in Lagos at the weekend that the company is into travel solutions and packages travel for both corporate organisations and individuals.
For over nine years the company has been managing the travel needs of corporate organisations but few years ago decided to cater for the entire travel needs of every Nigerian, hence the launching of flyboku.com.
Lawal said that flyboku.com can connect customers to any part of the world but encourages travel to African destinations.
“We are into travel solutions. We are into travel experience and tourism. We are into making sure that every Nigerian has a digital travel agent without paying an arm and a leg. That is what Mr. Boku is here to do. Mr. Boku is a character that is created in the Nigerian parlance; something we can all relate to. If you look at him he is just chilled, cool. Mr. Boku can take away the stress and inconvenience and make travel very easy for you, no matter your destination. And we need not go to London, UK, US, Canada etc. We can discover Africa; we can discover places in Nigeria with what I call pocket friendly prices. That is our goal.
“We said there are four things that flyboku.com should do: one, it must be accessible. This means that you can even use your phone to book from the site. It is the most reliable travel site. We have built partnership around the best airlines, the best hotels
and the best products. We spent a lot of money and two years to perfect this system.”
and the best products. We spent a lot of money and two years to perfect this system.”Lawal urged Nigerians to travel to African destinations, noting that by doing that so much money would be allowed to circulate in the continent and African airlines, hotels and others who provide travel services and tourism would benefit, adding that flyboku.com and its parent company, Ashton and Dave can produce effective service because of his wealth of experience both as a customer and service provider who has spent years working in aviation and oil and gas sectors.
others who provide travel services and tourism would benefit, adding that flyboku.com and its parent company, Ashton and Dave can produce effective service because of his wealth of experience both as a customer and service provider who has spent years working in aviation and oil and gas sectors.“We aim to satisfy our customers first before we look at the market share because the most important thing is, before you get market share, you must get mind share. You must earn the trust of Nigerians. Flyboku.com you are seeing today is a dream that started 25 years ago. For us, it is not about counting the money quickly. We made investment, employed staff and provided training, infrastructure and technology. We believe we are going to be a major player in the market, but about the market share, we leave it to Nigerians and God to decide. We want to pay special attention to every customer. My staff knows this.
“Information is power. Whether you access ticket from my site or not, I want to provide information to Nigerians about this continental travel, particularly regional travels in Africa. It took me time to know Africa so I made the same mistake other Nigerians make by preferring to travel to Europe and Americas. I lived in the US for 20 years. An average Nigerian can name many places in Europe but he does not know Kigali; but an Australian guy is making you know where Kigali is. The Australian man will tell you where Banjul and Zanzibar are. Isn’t it a shame to us? These foreigners are looking for fun; they are looking for where God put natural things and we have underestimated what we have. I think the Director General of the National Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Sally Mbanefo said it; that we need to support ourselves and expose these areas of regional travel. So what we are going to do is to put a lot of information out there,” Lawal said.
Mbanefo who graced the launch urged Nigerians to think home and visit different parts of Nigeria, remarking that when they do so they circulate money locally and empower Nigerians instead of taking the money out of the country.
She congratulated the Chairman of Ashton and Dave, saying that the travel site is very effective, adding that the efforts of travel managers in the country would help to boost local tourism.
She disclosed that Nigeria has been recording business tourism but considering the beautiful tourist sites that Nigeria has and its huge population, the country should generate more money from tourism.
from tourism.According to Mbanefo, Nigeria recorded 4.3 million business tourists in 2013 and 4.8 million in 2014, noting that considering what other smaller countries in the world that promote tourism generate from travel, Nigeria ought to earn more.
