Ehab El-Mahdy: We target 500,000 website users in 2018
"The Hotel Is on You and the Bus Is on Us" campaign unveiled in partnership with Go Bus tourist transport
By Akram Medhat
Amid fierce competition from global travel booking websites, which have come to threaten the future of Egyptian tourism companies, to the point that Egyptians now rely on them for 75% of their domestic tourism bookings, the sector had to find technological solutions and keep pace with the rapid development in how tourists around the world use the internet.
Then yesterday, Nile Misr Travel launched a new online platform, "Travkey" (travkey.com), at a press conference yesterday evening. It offers booking services for hotels, flight tickets of all kinds, both regular scheduled and low-cost, transport, optional excursions, domestic trips, and Hajj and Umrah, in both Arabic and English, with other languages to be added later. It took 3 years to establish, includes about 230,000 hotels, deals with 12 global companies, and targets business-to-business (B2B) sales between companies as well as business-to-consumer (B2C) sales to customers visiting the site.
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During the conference, Ehab El-Mahdy, Chairman of Nile Misr, the company that founded the website, reviewed the state of online tourism in Egypt and worldwide, saying that Egyptian users of foreign booking websites exceed 10 million a month, making bookings for hotels inside and outside Egypt and flight tickets, to the point that foreign companies now control 90% of the online tourism market in Egypt, most notably "Booking" and "Trivago".
He added that these companies account for between 60% and 70% of individual Egyptians' hotel bookings inside Egypt, according to a survey of the hotel sector, noting that the Egyptian customer pays the hotel, while a commission of between 15% and 30% is transferred in foreign currency outside Egypt.
El-Mahdy said that more than 148 million people use the internet to make bookings for their accommodation, trips and other activities, accounting for 57% of total travel bookings annually in 2015, adding that Booking receives about 536 million visitors a month, with Egypt ranking ninth with 8 million Egyptian visitors a month. Umrah will also move online, which will lead hundreds of companies to close their doors if they do not keep pace with the development.
El-Mahdy stressed that the website will not offer traditional deals, whether to tourism companies or to customers visiting from around the world, noting that Egyptians will get competitive price offers through "Hot Deals". He revealed that the target is to reach 500,000 website users in 2018, stressing that there will be no competition between the offers of companies and hotels, and that customers around the world will be reached without the need to deal with tour operators.
In addition, customers will be able to book online only and pay later, either electronically or in cash at the companies' offices or at the hotels, to build trust, with a set period to confirm the booking, otherwise it will be canceled.
He went on to review online booking statistics and how online booking has come to dominate the global tourism market, as 80% of European Union travelers book their trips online, and revenue from online travel bookings has grown by about 73% over the past 5 years. The most important sources influencing travelers' decisions worldwide are now tourist review websites, at 69%, followed by online booking websites, at 57%.
The head of Nile Misr and founder of "Travkey" revealed joint cooperation with Go Bus tourist transport company, with an online booking service available from next December, and announced the launch of a promotional campaign under the slogan "The Hotel Is on You and the Bus Is on Us", giving away 2,000 free travel tickets on Go Bus seats for hotel bookings made through the website.
On the other hand, El-Mahdy pointed out that the company will launch a mobile application with all of the website's services at the end of next December, in addition to linking all the services tourists use to the website's electronic system.
El-Mahdy explained that the website's electronic system provides a username and password for each hotel so it can control the prices offered. The website also allows companies to add their own programs and prices, and helps eliminate unlicensed touts by cooperating with companies holding tourism licenses for safari and sea trip activities, making optional excursions bookable online at competitive prices.
