Actiovat - Co-founder Hanadi Abu Moeilak
With over 15 million visitors a year, the UAE has become a leading travel destination worldwide. From sweeping skylines of ultramodern skyscrapers to vast deserts landscapes, the UAE offers visitors the opportunity to take part in experiences that epitomize contemporary luxury with a traditional flair. However, as the UAE continues to gain dominance as a top travel spot, smaller tour operators are finding it difficult to keep up and increase their visibility.
To address these growing disparities, Gaza based Hanadi Abu Moeilak utilized her extensive experience working in startups in the UAE to co-found Actiovat in 2018. Actiovat is a platform that connects users and tour operators, allowing them to customize and receive different quotes for their trips and activities. Hanadi explains, “Most small tour operators in the UAE do not have a strong online presence which makes it difficult for users to get in touch and book their preferred tours and experiences.” She continues, “Because of this, users end up booking tours, activities and trips through sites like Trip Advisor which offer higher prices in compared to more competitive local providers.” What distinguishes Actiovat from their competitors are the user customization features as opposed to the lack of options characteristic of pre-existing tour packages. In addition, users are able to choose from a variety of specially customized quotes to meet their travel needs.
As such, Actiovat allows their users or travelers destined to the UAE to design their own adventure, including activities, excursions, events and tours to have the ultimate experience. To begin, users are required to fill out a form detailing their ideal trip and choose from a variety of preferred tours, activities and events. Afterwards, Actiovat connects with their growing network of partners across the UAE to coordinate the ideal trip for their users as quickly and cost effectively as possible. Users then select from a variety of offers specifically tailored to the excursions and activities which best appeals to them.
In terms of market presence, Actiovat targets tourists destined to the UAE, Hanadi explains, “there are over 15 million people a year who visit the UAE and spend more than $28.5 billion, to get just 0.001 of this market would be sufficient to maintain good profits.” Hanadi further elaborates on the strengths and potential of Actiovat, “In the current market there is a lack of services that give users the tools to customize and choose from a variety of tours, activities, and events that are budget friendly, Actiovat addresses this need.” Furthermore, Hanadi explains that Actiovat is a flexible website and can be optimized with additional features and services to adapt to the growing needs of the market.
Strategies to tap into the market includes adopting a strong online presence, Hanadi explains, “Because we are in Gaza and cannot meet our users in person, we go directly to where they interact online, the websites, the groups, forums and social media pages they visit.” Moreover, Actiovat adopts strong content marketing strategies including the use of pictures, videos and blogs to get users excited about their future trip and learn about all the activities they can take part in, “This content will encourage our users to thrive for a fun experience, this content will also be shared on all our channels including our blog and social media platform,” says Hanadi.
Since launching in August 1, 2018, Actiovat was able to receive 70 leads in 10 days and make $200 in profit with no paid marketing. As such the potential for Actiovat is great. With $20,000 Actiovat will be able to expand their marketing campaign to bring in more users. This will greatly boost Actiovat’s presence in the market and by the end of 2018 Actiovat is projected to establish a market share of 0.001 in the UAE. The expanded team will also be able to manage online content and increase marketing efforts. Upon successfully acquiring this market share in the UAE, Actiovat aims to raise funding to expand to other top travel destinations, specifically Turkey and Egypt. After this initial expansion and upon generating a sustainable revenue stream, Actiovat will begin to include other services such as full travel packages and even visa services for travel in the UAE, Turkey and Egypt.
Actiovat currently consists of a team of two, including co-founder Hanadi who manages the day-to-day business operations to meet the needs of Actiovat’s growing users. In addition, technical co-founder Ahmad Abu Baker’s extensive experience in web based development and online marketing and design is utilized to create an optimized experience for Actiovat’s users. In terms of funding, Hanadi maintains, “Funding is the most required resource at this stage.” She continues, “Currently, we have paid nothing on marketing and managed to generate 100 leads, which means that our business is successful, with additional funding we can acquire even more users.”
In terms of impact, Hanadi had this to say, “We will operate from Gaza, we want to prove that young people from Gaza are capable of starting up successful companies.” She adds, “We depend on the talents that exist in Gaza and we will continue to hire in Gaza to provide job opportunities for eager new graduates.”
To find out more please visit, https://www.actiovat.com