WEST AFRICA’S LARGEST ONLINE AGENCY EYES UK PRESENCE
(Posted 16th February 2017)
Wakanow, Africa’s fast-rising and Nigeria’s No.1 online travel company, has announced plans to formally launch commercial operations in the UK as part of their efforts for global expansion and in a bid to consolidate their foray into Europe. The announcement is coming barely months after it launched DestinationsAfrica(R), a global booking platform that aggregates the best of African packaged holidays from over 23 African countries. This has, needless to say, caught the eyes of the continental tourism offices now keen to engage with Wakanow and position themselves for a rise in cross Africa travel.
Wakanow, which already operates commercial offices in Nigeria and Ghana as well as service outlets in Dubai and the UK, will launch its office in the UK, showcasing a cutting-edge booking portal that will offer flights and hotel bookings and Transfers/Protocol services, for intra-Europe travel as well as for outbound travel into Africa. The office will be based in Surrey, London.
The new UK booking portal will ride on the success of Wakanow’s well-tested technologies and service excellence to extend the traditional African warm welcome to millions of travelers looking for efficient and well-priced travel packages into and around Africa and Europe, though the immediate target seems to be West Africans living in the UK.
Speaking ahead of the formal launch which is slated for March this year, Founder and Group Managing Director of Wakanow, Mr. Obinna Ekezie, said the new addition to the fast-growing travel brand would allow the company to serve the European markets and demonstrate its capacity to compete favorably on the global stage. He explained that at present already a good number of bookings on the Wakanow Nigeria booking portal were originating from the UK and other countries outside of Nigeria and it was therefore a natural progression for Wakanow to cater for this market.
In his words ‘We are very delighted about the forthcoming launch of Wakanow UK, and this excitement stems from our conviction that this addition has the capacity to offer something different to the European market when it comes to travelling into Africa. Our protocol services into Africa is built on very strong relationships and will ensure our prospective customers get the most hitch-free and hassle-free movement in and out of the continent. Wakanow has honed her skills in African travel over the last 8 years and will bring that to bear in not only offering best priced deals but making sure that her interactions with these travelers will deliver a more positive narrative for African businesses‘.
He then added that ‘Not only are we going to replicate the same excellent customer service for which the Wakanow brand is known for, but we are also going to take the lead in expanding the frontiers of travel and driving significant traffic to Africa through our broad mix of custom-fit and themed vacation offerings available on our DestinationsAfrica platform. We will leverage our vast knowledge of the African space and her wealth of untapped destinations to create exclusive travel products that offer fresh and incredible experiences for our customers‘.
The Wakanow UK launch will be followed by the opening of several other Wakanow offices across Africa, with Wakanow Kenya and Wakanow South Africa already under way. Riding on the back of advanced technology, Wakanow will "switch on" her online booking portals in 6 other African countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Tanzania. Other countries include Dubai and the US.
Wakanow is a rising force on the African Tourism scene and already Nigeria’s No. 1 online travel booking company. The company has won many awards including the Tony Elumelu’s fastest rising company awards, a host of travel industry Awards and more recently, the CNBC Business Leader of the Year award which went to the Founder and Managing Director, Mr. Obinna Ekezie. Wakanow has strong affiliations with hundreds of hotels, airlines and other service providers globally and has facilitated over 800,000 travel bookings since its launch in 2008.
The company is leveraging heavily on technology and accelerated customer service models and today represents the rapidly changing the face of travel in Africa.
