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Becoming a touring agent requires you to know your niche market since most clients prefer older travelling agencies as to compared to upcoming ones. Tourism is one of the most lucrative undertakings in Kenya. Travelling will never stop being one of the most sought after leisure activities. It’s also one of the more expensive leisure activities that most people love but cannot engage in. Or maybe they think they can’t. Well, did you know that you don’t have to go to Maasai Mara or Zanzibar to be called a tourist?
Local tourism is becoming a thing. It’s the in-thing in Kenya right now. This is because most people have realized that there are many beautiful places that have never been fully explored in Kenya. The government is even encouraging Kenyans to take up local tourism as a leisure activity. Talking about local tourism, we met up with one of the most daring young men in Kenya, Wellington Ellah Okali aka Ellah de Kartel. He did the most unthinkable hustle that any young guy would ever think of doing. He started his own travel agency.
Ellah started out his travel agency as an activity to ensure his friends had fun. In 2018 he began by organizing fun trips for him and his friends. This slowly grew to organizing trips for families and friends to go have fun. As time went by, he decided that he could do this as a money-making activity. This is when he started approaching companies to help him kick-start his business. This was a symbiotic kind of relationship as all he had to do was give the companies client benefit while they gave him the funds to run the business.
Now what he does mostly is organizing fun, one or two-day activities for families and friends. This is easy for him because he doesn’t spend a lot on the operational costs and most of his sponsors are willing to cater to his budget and make profits. The making of profits comes in when many people get to know that an event is happening. This being one of the most delicate undertakings in today’s society, one has to consider a few things.
Ellah says that one has to know their market perfectly. To undertake such a hustle, always know your market. Know the market’s needs and likes. This will enable one to provide customers with specifically what they need and at a particular time. One should also know the spending rate of the target market. A specific group of people may be willing to spend millions on a trip while others may be on budget constraints and thus need something that’s pocket friendly.
One should also know his or her competition. Ellah states that this day and age has seen so many travel agencies coming up and providing services. He says the difference between those who are good and the best is the unique angle the latter decides to take in order to please the client. Never be normal, as normal is boring. One has to look at what their competition is doing and change something even if it means changing just a little bit.
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Ellah attributes his success to being open-minded. Never look at a hustle from the perspective of ordinary jobs. Go out of your way to see what other people have never done. Patience is also an attribute one should always carry with him or her each and every day in the tourism sector. This is because it’s a market that has so many fluctuations. It has highs and lows which if not watched might cause rapid business success or failure.
For more information on the grind grab a copy of The Outsyder in The Nairobian every Friday.
