Jumia Travel has announced a new service for Nigerian travelers. The premium travel marketplace has launched its cruise travel as a new option for travellers. According to the company, the introduction of cruise travel will deepen its offerings for customers even further.
African travel booking platform @JumiaTravel has launched cruise travel to encourage more Nigerians to go on cruise voyages as it expands its footprint to become a robust travel agency offering hotel, flights, airport pickups, travel insurance and cruise travel.
— Techloy 💙💛 (@techloy) March 22, 2019
Cruising is one of the most exclusive and popular forms of travel and tourism. In 2013, 1.72 million people spent their holidays and other vacations on cruise travels.
And it’s understandable why they do this. The experience of of being on a ship and travelling to exotic places like the Caribbean, Cayman Island, etc is a pretty alluring affair.
Now Jumia Travel is aiming to bring all that excitement to the Nigerian travel and tourism market. According to the company, the demand for this service is too high to be ignored.
According to Jumia Travel chief, Ms Omolara Adagunodo, after the company included cruise travel as an option on the platform, the response has been overwhelming. She added that “a substantial number of Nigerian travellers have bought cruises to various destinations around the world.”
Although she didn’t release figures, Ms Omolara attributed the rising sales to Jumia Travel’s affordable rates.
“We have gone the extra mile to negotiate the best available rates in the cruise market for our customers,” she says.
Importantly too, Jumia Travel has factored in the local economic situation into its plans. Due to the high cost of cruise travel, the company adopted the installment payment model. This allows travellers breakdown the cost of a trip and pay gradually until the cost is covered. This reduces the stress and headache on travellers and allows them plan trips long before the time.
This is one way of making cruise travel affordable and Jumia is aiming it will help it attract more travellers from both the wealthy and the middle class. For now, it’s too early to know whether the move will work. Going forward, we’ll get a clearer view of how things shape up.