TravelNeza’s CEO, Laura Kagame, has worked to ingrain the concept of travel for leisure into the marketplace that is the travel industry in Uganda. Passionate about travel and with an eye for a niche in an industry that she has been deeply grounded in. She’s shaken things up a little in this industry, what with the unusual name, and with a niche that increasingly has the attention of the mainstream market, so we undoubtedly had questions.
What is the origin of the name TravelNeza? How long have you been in the tours and travel business? What is your speciality?
TravelNeza is a leisure holidays company in the travel industry. That’s our specialty – leisure holidays. The name is best explained by an anecdote. When I was first starting out, I was trying to come up with a name and I wanted something that spoke directly about ‘travel’. I was on the phone with an aunt who lives in Rwanda, and she was just about to get on a plane. She asked me what I was going to call the company and I told her I couldn’t for the life of me come up with something that rang true.
At that point, the plane was getting ready to taxi in preparation for take-off, and the whole turn-off-cell-phones-and electronic devices rigmarole was kicking, so she quickly said her goodbyes. I responded with the phrase ‘Travel Neza’. Later when she landed and we picked up the conversation again, she asked me if I was any closer to a name and just like that it clicked. ‘Travel Neza’ – Neza is how we say ‘well’ in Rwandese, so Travel Neza is ‘travel well’. And just like that, we had our name⏤ TravelNeza.
Have leisure holidays always been your intended niche?
Always. In fact, I pointedly ignored the corporate world, people looking for business trips, government conferences, companies headed to symposiums, that sort of thing. What I was looking for was holidays, leisure holidays, people packing their bags with vests, bikinis and sunglasses, that sort of thing.
The reason I was so focused on leisure holidays?
Before this, I worked at Rwanda Air, as a Sales Manager in charge of travel agents. And I noticed that as far as business with Uganda was concerned, there was hardly anyone specialising in leisure holidays (this was about 8 years ago). Especially the all-inclusive packages, which is one of our most popular products. The travel agents who dabbled in it were doing it on the side, say, like if a corporate account they were handling suddenly had an MD who also wanted to go on holiday with his family. But no one was advertising it, or specialising it, and that was a gap in the market – leisure holidays for individuals, and groups. Ironically, corporations started to come to us specifically seeking this service once we launched, which underlined my belief that the gap existed in the marketplace. They will come to us for corporate retreats, end-of-year events, that sort of thing…so the corporate market came to us, and of course, we couldn’t turn it down.
What leisure products work for corporate entities?
Thoseevolved organically. Companies had a look at the destination weddings that we do, and the group travel packages that we have, and soon they were asking for customised products suiting corporate companies. We call it Leisure for Corporates, and it’s a powerful product for corporate entities. A firm like Prudential will use it to reward its top ten agents; a bank like Stanbic uses it for its relationship managers, and so on. No team buildings, no strategy meetings, just team cohesion, and to have fun -that is what we promise, after all.
So in an interesting way, you ended up with the very marketplace you were trying to avoid…but with a product you had tailored for them.
Oh yes, and now we get invited to package arrangements with these companies so that their staff can take holidays. It gets deducted from their salaries, because these companies need these people to take holidays to increase their productivity, so we have the deductions done monthly till it has accumulated to a point where they can handle the holiday package. So we have been lucky to have developed a relationship with several corporate entities where holidays are arranged with us and are cleared by the company and deducted regularly from their staff. It is possibly the thing that keeps us busiest at the beginning of the year, arranging those packages with different firms.
Sounds like a neat problem to have on your hands…
Wellness has become a big thing with the world now, with several studies backing it up, and we have benefited from it. People would go on leave, and go home and irritate everyone or go and get wasted in bars throughout their leave, probably getting into trouble. By the time they got back to work from leave, instead of being rejuvenated and re-energized, they were tired, irritable and with no improvement in terms of productivity. So our holidays have become a productivity solution for several HR departments. We are doing this with about 15 companies.
What are the details? How does this work?
Well, say we offer the company a holiday for USD1,200 to Dubai. The company pays about USD300 of that (call it a leave allowance), incentivising the employee to go for an all-access holiday to Dubai for USD700. And that USD700 is deducted from source (salary) at a monthly rate that doesn’t pinch the employee too hard. In the end, you have an employee headed to a fun holiday at a fantastic discounted rate within a manageable payment schedule. And an employee headed for holiday is a happy employee, who is also likely to be a more productive one. Everybody wins.
Sounds like a tidy windfall for TravelNeza.
And one that was purely demand-driven – it wasn’t something I planned for. We have certainly responded to the demand, though. Alongside this though, within leisure holidays, our biggest clients are groups of friends travelling, families travelling, honey moons and couple holidays, and of course, the corporate packages that fall under Corporate for Leisure.
Tell me something about your leisure holidays packages that I might not expect.
Well, there’s the fact that all our packages are all-inclusive (I can’t emphasize that enough). Then there’s the fact that we have both domestic and outbound holiday packages. I always feel like before you try to travel abroad on holiday, you really should see what this country has to offer. This country is gorgeous, I can tell you that…
You mentioned to me the fact that you worked in South Africa, and Rwanda of course, for Rwanda Air…what struck you as unusual the first time you interacted with the industry here?
Ugandans never just go on holiday. They think going to China to shop for goods is going on holiday. Or taking their kids to school, or going shopping in Dubai for business is going on holiday. It’s a cultural paradigm that is shocking.
Perhaps it is about disposable income.
That’s just the thing. You think when you see someone from South Africa in Dubai on holiday they had that money sitting in their wallet? No, within that society, people start planning for their December holiday in January. They take advantage of packages like the ones travel agencies like TravelNeza offer. Going for treatment is not a holiday. Neither is going for a conference. And Uganda is uniquely unusual in this regard. Kenyans, Tanzanians go on holiday! It’s actually the norm, almost the same way we go to the village on holiday here. In South Africa, even a junior, junior staff will go on holiday, even if it is for USD10 a night. They will go and camp at a camping site if they have to, as long as they get the chance to unplug.
Why do you think this is the case?
I think it is because those countries are what you might refer to as settler economies – Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa – so it became a cultural norm that was picked up from colonial populations. In Uganda, it is not the norm – in fact here folks feel almost shy about going on holiday, and feel like they are showing off or something along those lines.
What are your all-inclusive packages like and what has been the response to them?
They will cover everything to do with the trip – flights, hotels, meals, transport at the venue, visas where arrangements can be made, that sort of thing. In fact, the very inclusiveness of our packages may be our biggest selling point – the response usually is something like “So for USD1, 500 I can go to Dubai for 7 nights, I just pay my Visa and I just go?” Meanwhile, in South Africa and Kenya, travel companies have been doing this forever. It helps, of course, that those economies are so much bigger, and niches are easier to develop, while here, clients were reluctant to do so.
What if I have a specific international festival in mind that I would like to attend?
We would have you covered. Heck, even for international concerts, we would be able to pull it off. We have an online calendar on our website that tracks international festivals and events, so we can easily put together a package that caters to any of these, to your convenience. And yes, it would include tickets to the event. We had Beyoncé packages for her performance in Amsterdam. And we had these packages out from the moment she announced her tour.
The whole essence of these all-inclusive packages is to make travel more accessible, enable access to information, and make it more affordable. We do that. The fact that these packages are released early enables people to afford them. You won’t believe it but we already have payments coming in for people booking packages for December. They take advantage of the cheaper ticket prices when you buy your ticket now, and utilize their instalment payments effectively. We make it work.
So, I can plan for my dream destination say to the Maldives in December.
Yes, and you can do that by paying monthly for your package, say, if you are putting aside USD150 a month. For a salaried employee, that is easily manageable! This is the kind of money people spend in a bar. And once people use a package, we often have repeat visits because people now understand how much easier it is.
You speak like a woman with a mission.
When I started this, I was genuinely bothered by the number of Ugandans not travelling. Everything I have told you might sound like I sat down somewhere and strategised but mostly what drove me was how it was such a shocking statistic that Ugandans barely traveled for holiday. So I set out to do my bit about it because I was a bit peeved.
Do you have any specific tools that have enabled you to make this work? In terms of your experience, or training/education, that sort of thing?
Travel is all I know, and I have ever done. I have a passion for it, and it is what I studied at the Undergraduate level, I started as a ticketing agent, I know how insurance is handled, I have handled reservations for a hotel, I have worked for a leisure holidays company, which was my biggest inspiration, I know how to do packing, I know how to sell these packages.
We needed to come up with a planned way of leisure travel. You do not wait for USD6,000 to hit your account before travelling; that is not what the average European traveller, or South African or Kenyan does. And so we had to teach people to plan their travels in advance, it makes it a lot more affordable.
How many staff do you have?
15 full-time staff.
What are your numbers like?
Looking at domestic and outbound? I would say about 300, taking into consideration all categories.
What percentage of those is domestic?
About 25%. Through no fault of ours, actually. In fact, we try to encourage people to travel domestically for their leisure holidays. As a policy, my team will ask if you have visited 3 domestic destinations when you come to our offices, and are asking for a holiday to a destination like Dubai. We make bigger commissions with outbound destinations than we do with domestic ones, mostly because those international destinations offer bigger commissions, while domestic destinations haven’t yet figured out how the marketplace works and offer way smaller ones and are less likely to incentivise clients. But in my heart, I have always felt you should love your home, and so TravelNeza will encourage you to try domestic leisure holiday destinations.
Do you tap into domestic destinations yourself, at a personal level?
A month ago I turned 40 and everyone thought I would go on holiday to the Maldives or something like that to celebrate. I chose Wild Waters here in Uganda, and some of the content we got from that holiday is simply stunning. I could be anywhere in the world, but I chose to be in Jinja, and I absolutely loved it. We went all out – I was with 2 girlfriends, and we gave it the whole experience, with tons of outfits, a drone for pictures and that sort of thing.
What’s your reach in terms of scope, for TravelNeza?
We like to tell people we cover everything from Jinja to New Zealand. As long as the destination is safe for you, we will offer you a package.
What does TravelNeza have planned for the near future in terms of services, expansion, that sort of thing?
One of the services we recently added is travel advisory. We are adding this to the services we already have including ticketing, visa assistance, all-inclusive holidays, corporate for leisure (incentive travel) and safaris.
How important are your partnerships to your business?
They are vital. They open us up to audiences we usually wouldn’t reach, say the partnership that we have with NBS TV. Also, you cannot underestimate the importance of brand affiliation, like when we get involved in a project with Guinness or Stanbic. Often, these have opened doors for us at a corporate level for our corporate for leisure packages. It gives us an edge over other travel companies.
How do you achieve a level of balance between your personal life and your business?
I grew up in my family that travels a lot and I have always loved travelling. Even if I had ended up say in a government job or something, I still would have a thing for travel. I am absolutely not married, absolutely not dating, not with the way my life is structured, I have one child whom I am 100% parenting. He is 11 and is in boarding school in Kenya, and I have a super supportive family.
I do not feel like a single mum because of that. For example, I did my masters in a University that had branches in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand – I left him to do this when he was 1 and ½ years old and my parents took him in, and made it possible for my masters to happen. He gets to travel a lot with me too, when he is not at school of course! I call him my mini tour assistant.
What would you say to an entrepreneur looking to join the travel industry?
Do it if you have a passion for it. You need the passion, that desire to help people to travel, to make this work.
Do you ever take on work from the government?
Only collaborations. For instance, UTB approaches us if they have celebrities looking for travel packages, that sort of thing.
I am referring to conferences, bookings, that sort of thing…
No. Mostly because government interaction involves credit, and we do not do credit. Let it be known – by the time to take a holiday with us, it has been fully paid for.
What do you think the government needs to do for the travel industry, which is part and parcel of the tourism sector, a contributor to GDP?
I think it should deliberately invest more, and alongside this, attempt some out-of-the-box thinking. Rwanda is doing it –you can’t just be there posing with your gorillas, but their out of box thinking is helping. We have more wildlife than they do. Also, the government should involve the private sector more, and get younger people involved too!
Your thoughts on Destination Uganda…
Destination Uganda is a PR push from UTB, attempting to promote domestic tourism. They decided to use celebrities in this drive, that sort of thing. I feel like they went about it wrong – celebrities do not tell the everyday man’s experience. I know they do that because of the following these people have but I feel selling the everyman experience would work more – and they could sell this through other platforms more effectively, say, through established platforms. Something like what Kenya with Magical Kenya, and South Africa with Sunrise Africa, are doing. They customise the marketing campaign towards ordinary populations. South African destinations are full of South Africans, who then post about it, and the way the algorithms work, which gets out to global audiences. UTB takes its messages to expos and platforms of that sort, completely ignoring the domestic audiences.
Good, bad and ugly side of your run in the industry?
It is fulfilling and exciting; you are selling happiness and that can be its own reward. It is also not capital intensive, so you can find your feet, and strategize till things start ticking over. The bad, well, there’s a bias against travel agencies. Part of the problem is people not reading the small print and poor communication. So a lot of the conflict that happens is because people do not understand the refund policies for instance, on air tickets, and that sort of thing. So we try as hard as possible to communicate clearly with our potential clients. Our labour force also lacks soft skills with regards to customer service, and that can be frustrating.
Finally, what does TravelNeza have up its sleeve?
This is the bit I enjoy. We are rolling out the TravelNeza Wallet. This is how it works. If you have a trip say in October, and the trip costs USD 800, you can start depositing for it into your wallet. There’s more to using the wallet – you can use it to earn commissions for referrals. So for every successful referral, we deposit USD20 in your wallet.
Is the Neza Club another innovation as well? I saw something like that on the office wall…
Yes, it is. The club brings together people looking to form groups heading to a particular destination, who need to put together numbers for this. They get to join a WhatsApp group and interact, we have soirées for them where they meet up and get to know each other a week or so before the trip. We are social animals and it’s a great way to get to meet new people with something in common.