Ahlan Guide: Say Good-Bye To All Your Travelling Woes

What’s the story of how Ahlan Guide (AG) and how did it come to life? Give us an intro!

I live in a state which promotes Tourism and I meet a lot of people with diverse cultures and back-grounds. However, they all have one thing in common: uncertainty in their mind when they set for  travel to a new destination. I’ve always wanted to help these tourists in one way or the other. Ahlan guide is a platform for travel agents to bridge this gap and become virtual travel assistants without much cost and without any technical knowledge.

Why this specific business of all the others? They say “One must do a job which he likes”, I will change it to “One shall do a business which he enjoys.”

My Reason  01 – I belong to the IT industry and have been very active in Smart government and Mobile first consultancy.

My Reason  02 – I’m into helping others especially the ones with uncertainty. I always try to help whoever comes to me even if for a few minutes and that’s reflected in Ahlan guide.

My Reason  03 – The travel industry has always flourished and will continue to do so. A touch of technology will always complement the industry. If not now, then when?

What makes your App stand out from the rest available in market?

I’ve been really good at identifying what clients want. There are thousands of travel apps already available in the market but we’re building an entire platform by providing full control of the content and flow to the travel agent without need to write a single piece of code. With a strong engine at back-end, the travel agent can almost do everything: add/edit the trips, get customer feedback, push urgent messages, receive SOS alerts and be the virtual tour guide 24/7 without depending on any technology provider and utilizing existing staff.

How are your marketing channels when everything seems to be happening on digital platforms nowadays?

So we’re a B2B business and we’ll use all latest marketing tools and strategies to promote ahlan guide including YouTube, Facebook, yellow pages, and business forums along with traditional and classical sales methods. The bottom line is to address challenges faced by our target clientele. We’ve designed our platform to achieve this objective rather than enforcing our most liked features.

What is your favorite part about working for yourself and what’s the most challenging part?

I can convert my dreams into reality. I can be CEO of my life. Sounds fascinating. Isn’t it?

Nothing is painful if you accept, approve and appreciate the challenge. Having a business comes with its own set of problems but we have to remember bigger the problem which is always learning. You never surrender, as you know you have to run the show, this is the great thing about owning a business as it changes your spirit once you accept you’re an entrepreneur deep in your heart. (This is the first step which a lot fail to take)

If you could pin your success down to one thing or one moment, what would that be?  

Accepting deep inside that any success and business warrants a great team who you can trust and work closely with without any pain i.e when the chemistry matches. And when you realize this fact, you find the team as well.

How do you see this business flourishing in Muslim Countries? 

We see it booming especially during Hajj and Umrah season. Performing rituals on the spot is much different than watching them on TV. I’ve been there many times and have observed the challenges, issues, complaints very closely. Our platform addresses each issue in a very easy and careful manner and I’m very hopeful that our platform will become essential for Tour operators in Muslim countries

What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?

You never give up and find one reason or the other to live another day in a unique way.

What’s the next big step for Ahlan Guide?

Go big i.e Launch in the UAE, we’re aiming for 2020!