Jumia Travel, an online travel agency providing online hotel reservations across the continent, has appointed Timothy Mugume as the new Country Manager for Uganda.
Mugume, who replaces outgoing Country Manager Louis Badea, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Makerere University where he majored in Finance and Accounting. He brings with him deep knowledge and understanding of e-commerce having previously worked with Jumia Uganda in different roles.
“I joined Jumia initially in 2014, and was working with the finance department. I went on to become the Head Of Operations at Kaymu, a former shopping portal which later merged with Jumia Market. However, I left for a year to serve as a Principal Accountant at Kiira Motors Corporation. I have now returned as the Jumia Travel Country Manager,” Timothy Mugume elaborated.
In an interview with Timothy Mugume, he further opened up on his plans to increase domestic tourism and how he hopes to mitigate their challenges among other things.
On Domestic tourism:
We have already set out different partnerships with our hotels targeting to solve the biggest inhibitors to domestic tourism such as perceived expensive accommodation. We are working with local hotels to introduce “East African rates”. These rates are much cheaper and have good discounts and are going to affect every East African.
We are also lining up different packages that will make it very convenient and affordable for Ugandans to visit local tourist attractions. For example we have a special promo called ‘Jumia Liberates Travel’ where individuals are offered upto 50% discount on accommodation across the country.
All these are geared towards giving back to the community and making them love travel.
On their challenges and how he plans to overcome them:
For the system to work perfectly, we need to have good internet connectivity. But sometimes there are internet outages, and in some areas like hotels deep in national parks there is no internet making this a big challenge to us. However, we have come up with innovative solutions to mitigate this. For instance we serve as booking agents for such hotels.
The other challenge is that the quality of customer care in some of the local hotels is wanting. But we are working together with hotel owners to ensure their employees get the proper training because ultimately we all want to offer world class services to our clients.
Expectations in his new role:
I believe so much in personal relationships. I believe we are connected and we all have a role to play in each other’s lives. If I can make just one person happy, I am very happy too. This could be through providing excellent services, or even getting clients for are partnering hotels.
I want to break this big misconception that travel is only for leisure and the rich. We have tailored services for everyone to enjoy the beauty that is Uganda.