Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has launched Transcorp Hotels’ hospitality mobile application, Aura designed to enable people to book hotel accommodation, restaurants and experiences across the country.
Prof. Osinbajo said during the launch at Transcorp Hotels in Abuja that the app would provide a major avenue for other small businesses in the value chain to grow adding that this would also help to revive the nation’s hospitality industry especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The Vice President said that he found the app easy to navigate, with a copious offering of hotels, short-let apartments, experience tours.
“They lure you into it by showing you a photo of an incredibly mouth-watering meal, and I saw a few that almost convinced me to break my fast early.
“I think the feature many especially property owners will find most fascinating is the host feature; as this enables you to put up your own property.
“And there are terms and conditions you need to meet for your property to be accepted. Same for whatever other entertainment facility you may wish to put out there for letting.”
Prof. Osinbajo commended the Transcorp team, including Mr Elumelu; Group CEO of Transcorp, Mrs Owen Omogiafo; and CEO of Transcorp Hotels, Mrs Dupe Olusola; for designing such a digital platform at this time.
“This is an excellent innovation, a service that leverages smoothly on technology and one that will be a tremendous boost to the hospitality industry as a whole. And because I have checked it out myself, I can say that my Aura experience has been quite good,” he stated.
In her remarks, Mrs Olusola noted that “Aura is a digital hospitality platform that gives the opportunity to all our stakeholders and guests to actually be able to book accommodation and experiences just at their fingertips.”
She said the platform is an opportunity to diversify the Nigerian, an opportunity to create jobs and employment and develop domestic tourism and leisure travel.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila; Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami; Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige; the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Ade Ipaye, Chairman of Transcorp Group, Mr Tony Elumelu; among other dignitaries, also attended the event.
