Phuket, Thailand. This was the place where it all started. The place where i have always looked forward to travel as a tourist, is now called home (and workplace).
TripAsia Tours (as we were first known as) was ‘born’ in January 2012. It was hard work getting the documentations and office legally running as we totally started fresh from scratch.
My business partner at that point of time, Tatar, and myself almost gave up but alhamdulilah with Allah’s Mercy, things got up and running and we started operations in January 2012.
With Tatar’s vast experience in the local tourism industry, coupled with my short experience as a former hotelier, we began our survival course.
It was not an easy phase of life for me, living away from family in a foreign land with no back-up plans financially, yet it somehow excites me to push myself to see what i can do.
The first year was tough, but alhamdulilah we did start the income coming in (to our surprise). Most of the bookings started coming from my network of friends, something which i truly appreciate up till now. And through words of mouth (definitely the best form of marketing), we got bookings from others as well.
Many do not know, but i almost gave up mentally during the first year, but something inside me kept me pushing on. Marketing was solely done via Facebook, no strategy at all. Just posting whatever, whenever i can, hoping that people will see, share, engage, inquire and book.
Looking back at the posters i designed, horribly atrocious is too mild of a word for it. I have zero creative background knowledge, so it was all trial and error at that early stage. Learning curve as they say, alhamdulilah.
After i got married and personally moved to Kuala Lumpur in late 2014, i soon found out it was not practical working remotely from Malaysia with the office still based in Phuket.
After much discussion with my wife, Nadiah, i decided on one of the hardest business decisions i had to make. We closed TripAsia Tours in mid 2015; to make way for another entity with more emphasis and focus on Muslim tourism.
Preparations took a while, almost 8 months in fact before SafarTrips was legally ready to start operating. With that alhamdulilah, the rebrand from TripAsia Tours to SafarTrips, and the relocation from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur was complete.
With our tagline, ‘Travel Redefined’, we aim to innovate the way Muslims travel, in terms of product, service or process inshaaAllah.
And we sincerely hope that you trippers, will trip on with us as we embark on this new journey.
May Allah purify our intentions always, and may He place Barakah in all that we do. Ameen.
Rizal
Chief Tripper
