The Director, Business Development, Aura by Transcorp Hotels, Ifeoma Okafor-Obi has said the Aura, a new digital platform recently was introduced by the hospitality brand will help in democratising access to hospitality in the country.
Also, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Transcorp Hotels Plc, Mrs Dupe Olusola, urged Nigerians to take advantage of opportunities provided on the digital platform.
The both said these during an online interactive session that on the new product.
The digital platform was launched about a fortnight ago by Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; the Chairman of Transcorp/Heirs Holdings, Mr. Tony Elumelu; Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe; Hon. Ndudi Elumelu; among others eminent personalities.
According to Olusola, Aura by Transcorp is truly a wonderful experience.
She said: “It is something that has never happened in Nigeria and we are very happy that we are at the forefront of leading this initiative. It helps position us as the leading hospitality company to deliver so much to Nigeria.
“The domestic tourism market is crying for investment and this is going to give opportunity to so many people to invest and enjoy the beauties that we have across Nigeria.”
Continuing, Okafor-Obi said Aura by Transcorp was introduced to empower Nigerians, create employment, saying, “We just want people to live the best of their lives and all these should be a click away and at your finger tip.”
She added: “What is beautiful about Aura is that we have made it seamless and a click for you to enjoy. That is really the thinking behind Aura. Now, aside from being an online platform, we also want this product to enable every member of society to partake in hospitality and to earn money. So, literally what we want to do is to that we want create a new breed of hospitality entrepreneurs.
“Now, the question is how do we want to do that? Everyone more or less stays in a house, but most of the time we live in homes where we are not maximising. You stay in a couple of rooms and there are still rooms available. So, you have an opportunity to tap into the home-sharing platform. You can put that part of your home that you are not using up on Aura.
‘Also, you could have a beautiful house in the village that you enjoy only during Christmas and you want when you are not around that that house is being utilised. That is one thing Aura can do for you. So, it can be home-sharing and you can put your full home on Aura.”
Furthermore, Okafor-Obi said another thing users of the app could do is that they can become an experience provider on Aura.
She explained: “You can become a tour guide such that where you are there are so many beautiful places around and you want to showcase it. Also, you can have skills in arts that you are very good at, photography, among others, Aura enables you to showcase it.
“So, literally, what we are trying to do is in addition to giving you an outlet where you are able to maximise the skills that you have. There is hotels’ experience as well as the chef experience and we are creating more on this platform. In addition to you being able to order food on Aura or visit a restaurant, you are able to ask for a special chef-created experience and we are able to provide that for you.
“It could be that you just want a relaxing office where you would sit down and think. The idea is to create as many entrepreneurs as possible and to ensure that every member of the society has the opportunity to partake in the hospitality industry, both directly and indirectly.
“We are already having some impact in the movie industry as some of the properties are being used to shoot movies. And we are also looking at more partnership to ensure that we are able to support a lot of industries.”
