“Nigeria has one of the most exciting and fastest growing travel industries in the world, and it remains a key investment region for us,” said Rabih Saab, President and Managing Director, Africa, Middle East and South Asia at Travelport, as he announced the introduction of Travelport’s top solutions to Nigeria during a special industry event in Lagos this week.

“The economy and the travel industry in Nigeria have continued to flourish over the past few years and further growth is expected not only over the coming years, but decades. The launch of these cutting edge solutions therefore further reinforces the vital importance of Nigeria in our regional strategy – both today and in the future.”
The travel sector in Nigeria has been growing steadily over the recent years as a direct result of the country’s rapid economic development. Earlier this year, Nigeria’s GDP was revised up by 89% to exceed US $500 billion, effectively making it the largest economy in Africa.

This growth brings with it a direct impact on consumer spending, as 128 million African households are expected to earn US $5,000 a year or more by 2020, enabling them to spend half their income on non-food items (McKinsey, 2014). This means more travel than ever before on and within the continent.

To enable travel agents in Nigeria to take full advantage of these opportunities, Travelport has this week introduced six of its leading edge solutions to the country. These are:

• Travelport Smartpoint – The revolutionary point of sale solution which brings a range of invaluable benefits to agents including increased efficiency, reduction in training costs, and the ability to sell more beyond-air content such as hotels and car hire.

• Agentivity – Travelport’s business intelligence suite for travel agents, which offers travel providers a unique and detailed insight into their agency’s activity, client behaviour, booking related issues and more.

• Travelport Merchandising Platform, which is changing the dynamic of the travel industry by transforming the way airlines deliver their products through the agency channel.  Travelport Merchandising Platform allows airlines to connect to Galileo distribution platform in any way they want, in order to deliver their full product portfolio with equal impact across all distribution channels.

• Travelport Mobile Agent – the unique mobile application that enables Travelport-connected agents to gain full access to the Galileo desktop directly from their iPad or iPhone device anytime, anywhere.

• Travelport ViewTrip Mobile – the itinerary management tool, which lets agency customers access destination info and their itinerary through their smartphone, iPad or other mobile devices whilst on the move.

• Galileo E-tracker – the E-ticketing management tool that provides agencies with ready access to view, monitor and generate reports on the status of all E-tickets issued by their organisation via Galileo.

More than 150 members of Nigeria’s travel industry gathered to witness the launch of Travelport’s latest offering at the Lagos Oriental Hotel.

Travelport has been operating in Nigeria since 2011.  Travelport currently operates in 49 countries across the African continent.