Turkey with its East meets West location, high internet penetration and relatively young population is well-positioned to further strengthen its presence in the online travel market.
At least that is what Çağlar Erol, CEO of online travel agency Wingie Enuygun Group, is hoping for as he shapes the business for further growth.
In an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference 2024, Erol said that the OTA operates in 22 different countries and is particularly strong in the Middle East.
He shared that Wingie has grown rapidly in that region since the end of the pandemic and is now targeting further growth across the United Arab Emirates as well as beyond.
Erol also said that Wingie had grown, since launch in 2008, from a fintech-focused business into an online travel agency, with its own payments gateway and digital wallet, offering flights, hotels, transfers, car rentals and bus tickets.
He touched on current challenges for the business such as scaling in different languages and different countries as it expands.
"As time goes by, you have to invest more and more in technology. Everybody is trying to do the same and talent can be a problem," Erol said.
Artificial intelligence is a priority for the company currently and it stakes a claim as being one of the first to market with a chatbot when ChatGPT unveiled the technology two years ago.
Erol also shared how 25% of the company's code is now written by AI but he wants to increase that figure following a strategy put in place two years ago to really focus on AI.
Watch the full interview below with PhocusWire's Linda Fox.
The Phocuswright Conference 2024 Executive Interview: Diving into the online travel market in Turkey