GIGM, Travelstart in Strategic Partnership To Boost Travel Experience

Two leaders in the transport sector, GIGM, a leading provider of tech-powered intercity transportation in West Africa, and Travelstart, one of Africa’s foremost travel agencies, announced the commencement of a strategic cross-platform partnership at a media briefing on Wednesday, June 19, 2024.

This partnership, a first of its kind in Nigeria, is designed to offer a more seamless travel experience for customers of both companies by integrating their services on their various platforms.

The integration allows GIGM customers, whose primary service offering is road transportation across West Africa, to book flights via the GIGM online platform.

Conversely, customers who use Travelstart to facilitate their air travel can now include road transportation services provided by GIGM in their travel itinerary eliminating the need to switch between multiple platforms to plan a comprehensive journey.

Sharing insights on the partnership, Enahoro Okhae, CEO of GIGM, said, “We have taken away the stress of people moving from one platform to another and conversing with different sets of people. This unified service in terms of customer servicing is going to unify our operations. Customers can look forward to merged costs and the convenience of one ticket that combines air travel and bus travel with a discount. Whether it is road or air, it’s all sorted out.”

Okhae also mentioned that they chose Travelstart because they consider it the best air travel brand to collaborate with. He added that GIGM is primarily a mobility company, and partnering with Travelstart enables them to offer air travel services to their customers. Okhae also noted that they are looking to add water transportation to their offerings.

GIGM and Travelstart leadership 1
Bukky Akomolafe, Country Manager of Travelstart, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership. “For the first time ever, air and road transport are coming together to deliver a seamless one-stop booking experience,” she said. “This means that customers, not just within Lagos and Abuja, which I think is where a lot of people focus their attention, but especially those outside of these central locations, who wish to either fly internationally or locally, now have another form of transportation to get to the airport.”

Akomolafe elaborated on the benefits for travellers from various regions, saying, “A customer from Akwa Ibom or Anambra can now decide to take a bus to get to Lagos or Abuja to catch their flight to London, and they will book it on GIGM. That same customer also has the option of purchasing a flight from Anambra Airport to Lagos or Abuja and then taking a bus to Akwa Ibom if they choose, and they can do that on Travelstart. There is no other travel agency and no other mobility company in Nigeria that has done this.”

Addressing potential challenges customers may face, Okhae said that there are no new challenges in their kind of business and both organisations have been tackling various challenges well in the past. He assured that customers should expect increased solutions as GIGM and Travelstart will be working together to deliver these solutions for enhanced customer convenience.