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iloubnan.info: Who is behind the concept of this site?
Elie Diab: This is an idea that Elie Nakhal started to develop in 2006. At that time, it consisted of launching an online reservation system for hotels and other tourism services in Lebanon: we were trying to encourage tourists to come to the Cedar Land, which was in full euphoria then. Unfortunately, the July war erupted in the same year. That’s when we realized that it was impossible to keep going with the idea of selling tourism services in Lebanon only. Due to the unstable situation, we decided to propose hotels everywhere in the world. Nevertheless, with this online reservation site, Elie Nakhal became a pioneer in this sector in Lebanon. In fact, he was already among the first people who understood the importance of the Internet: he was the one who posted an institutional site for Nakhal online in the early nineties, long before the boom of the Internet!
Therefore, Hoojoozat allows Nakhal to spread its activity to international clients and overcome the unstable situation in the country at the same time, doesn’t it?
Well yes it does, Lebanon is a particularly unstable small market. The situation turns upside down very fast, and the last events proved that once again. We cannot plan and expect many things for more than one year… That’s why we wanted to stretch our market outside Lebanon. And when the Lebanese societies choose to spread their activities and attract new clients in foreign countries, they often open branches in Arab countries. From our side, with Hoojoozat Society, we chose to spread our activity to the whole world via internet. This was possible for us in particular, thanks to the contacts we had already established with international hotels.
What is the economic model of Hoojoozat?
We take commission on the reservations. This commission brings us profits after deducting the credit card payment fees.
What is the position of Lebanon in the international market in terms of online reservation?
While many reservations are already made in the world via internet, Lebanon was a little bit late in this tendency. For the time being, we don’t have competitors in Lebanon or in the Arab countries, but one year later, we should be having three or four. However, this is good for us, for competition is very good factor in the market.
Hoojoozat and Nakhal are two different societies: what role could Hoojoozat play vis-à-vis its « eldest »?
Nowadays, Hoojoozat must be a strong support for Nakhal, especially by allowing it to reach a greater number of individual clients. Nakhal that used to deal with groups and make up to 2000 persons travel per week is only organizing four to five weekly charter flights now.
How many clients do you have?
On Hoojoozat, we now have 20 to 30 000 individual clients, a number that we wish to treble until next year. Almost half of our clients are in Gulf countries, especially in the United Arab Emirates, in Kuwait, and in Saudi Arabia. Their privileged destinations are Egypt and Dubai. It is worth noting that a great part of our clients consists of businesspersons.
What is your development strategy?
For us, the occidental market is saturated, we are betting on the market in the Arab countries. That’s why the site is available in English as well as in Arabic. We want to strengthen our presence in the Arab countries, where we are waiting for more clicks. In one year, we hope to double, or even treble, the number of our employees.
We are making e marketing on the website visited by Arab internet users and the high socio-professional categories. We are also organizing campaigns on paper media. Some communication campaigns reach many ten thousands of dollars.
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