CHUKS OKOH
Finchglow Travels, the leading travel consolidator in Nigeria has emerged Winner of the Travellers Award, Top 100 Travels Icons in Nigeria in Promoting Excellence in Travels at the travellers awards at the on going African Travel Market holding in Lagos
Speaking after receiving the 100 travellers Award, the managing director of Finchglow Travels, Mr Ezekiel Ikotun, said the organisation is working on automation and Artifical Intelligence in travels in oder to align with global best practices
Mr Ikotun described it as a major milestone which has taken the organisation to new level leading to more commitment, noting that Akwaaba is one of the leading events in travel and tourism in Nigeria and West Africa. “We are delighted to receive this kind of recognition based on our hard work and what we’re doing in our industry”
He said the organisation is consolidating as it serves as the bridge between the airlines, and travel agencies and making things a lot easier for them.
According to Mr Ikotun, Finchglow in recent time has been trying to simplify the travel ecosystem, the value chain, by making life a lot easier for their clients adding that over the years, “We have been able to gather our top and new prospective travel agencies to educate them on how best they can do the business. We do this periodically over our strategic locations”
“So right now, we are working a lot on automation, AI in travels, just to be sure we are in tune with global best practices.
So, as a futuristic travel consolidator, we know what is obtainable on the global scale”
He said the company is doing a lot just to ensure that customers, (travel agency), has access to rich content across the entire travel ecosystem, ranging from air tickets to other bundles such as transfers, hotels, and other major travel ancillaries
This according to Mr Ikotun, is to ensure that they have direct access, stressing that previously, they were in silos and isolation, but with the consolidation, they will come together with their products for profitability
Despite the forex challenges being faced by the organisation, Mr Ikotun said, there are both micro and macro challenges but expressed delight that there is a bit of stability in FX, which has brought stability to the business.
According to him, “this year has been better than last year in terms of FX and the rate of exchange. And thankfully also, majority of the airlines have transitioned into Naira business; we just have a few left. So there’s little pressure on FX”
He further said the environment also allows a lot of competition, and the competition which has led to innovation and creativity saying that they are in the right direction in the country based on the strategies but solicited more support from the government for them to be able to perform optimally in the business.
He urged those in the travel business to embrace AI as there will be a lot of disruption with the coming in through the use of AI as clients will be going to be doing a lot of as they have direct access to information.
“We must be able to do the extra for them to be able to come to us. Meaning, instead of them coming to us for a flight now, they can go into ChatGPT to say, “Check fare for me and get me the cheapest,” and it’s going to give them the cheapest”
