My name is Michael Balogun, CEO and Co founder of Xtrm Tours 2 Nigeria Limited. Also a Senior Contributor on Tripadvisor with 45,000+ Readers on my account.
I run an online tour packaging company with my Co founder Mr Olukole Majekodunmi www.tour2nigeria.com. It is a platform for both local and foreign Tourist to find everything about Tourism and tour packages in Nigeria and also for Nigerians in Diaspora to get an update of coming events in the country.
We got Nigeria listed on viator.com, a TripAdvisor company with over 350 million monthly active users. Our partners includes Jumia Travel, Meison Concierge, Mansard Insurance, Expore Travel Magazine, Best Man Board Games (owners of Nigeria Monopoly Board Games), Nova Rosta and Motley Travels. Our Company was nominated in 2017 by The Nigerian Travel Week Award under the Best Tour Operator Category in Nigeria.
A Luxury or Bespoke Tour as the word implies is a Private tour run exclusively for a family or friends with no stranger included, with customized itinerary with their specific wishes.
The differences between Luxury/Bespoke and Group tour packages are quite a few, from price differences to flexibility of time. Group tours are relatively cheaper compared to the Luxury tour packages. With all this in mind then you need to ask why do the rich prefer the Luxury tour packages? One: the flexibility to start the tour on their own convenient date and time. Two: the ability to choose the duration of the tour.
For example, some are lovers of Arts and Crafts, and may just want to see the different Galleries or pay a Visit to a Private Gallery with less crowd. Examples of my favorite galleries include The Studio Gallery, Nike Art Gallery and Terra Kulture.
With a luxury tour, your goals as a tour operator is to give value for money paid, and with this, you are giving the best of your services to a client, using an experienced tour guide, like Anago James in Badagry, a skillful and professional driver, and a well dressed security escort – most often we use plain clothe police officer, to take away any discomfort.
Another picture from another Luxury Tour we had, was packaged more around the children for the day here at the Lekki Conservation Centre.
Everything about this package should smell Luxury, which is the reason why we charge in Dollars. The client has to feel comfortable in the car and with a lovely air freshener as well. Notice that we take every little detail seriously.
Luxury tours makes its more relaxing when you have people with special assistance such as the elderly, maybe you decide to have a family tour with your aged mother coming along or people with disabilities or a family with children.
With a Group tour you have a fixed departure dates and itinerary that can’t be changed but with a Luxury tour you have total control of departure or date change. The Luxury tour offers one on one interactions with your clients.
Your luxury tourist can relate with you as their personal concierge, find out information about anything of interest and they decide on how long the tour will go for or when they want to stop.
Now, who exactly are these luxury tour clients?
They are not just the rich individuals or the wealthy, your Luxury clients are also folks from the Corporate sectors like the Banks, Expat staff, Telecoms, Oil and Gas, etc.
Bringing it all together, Luxury tour packaging is lucrative. If you decide to focus on this, you might not get as many tours like a Group tour, but when you do, trust me it will be worth the wait. Critical planning goes to putting together a Luxury Tour Package.
Thank you for this opportunity to share a little about Luxury tour packaging from my personal experience, I also want to thank Travel Massive Lagos as well for this platform. I am free to take your questions on Twitter @tour2naija.
#NigeriaTravelChat is a bi-monthly tweetchat hosted by @samadeleke and @travelmassivelg.
