Femke Irik, 23, is well on her way to proving what she told us back in February: “You do not need to have money to have a great idea. Determination can make anything come true.”
Earlier this year, the Dutch-born Lagos youngster told the Resident about SeaBookings, an online platform that she set up alongside her sister Bo Irik, 26, for tourists and residents to research, study and compare the range of maritime activities available in the Algarve, hoping to make it a viable business.
After the platform’s first summer, Femke has no doubts: “The project is viable!”
Currently working with 33 partners and offering over 100 sea activities, Femke is delighted by the “positive feedback” from tour operators and tourists alike. Besides popular activities such as dolphin trips and boat tours, SeaBookings also boasts kayaking, fishing, surfing and diving trips.
It’s not all rainbows and unicorns though. According to Femke, SeaBookings must counteract the seasonality that affects the sea tourism sector as many tour operators close for the winter.
“But setting up a new business without difficulties is impossible,” the self-assured youngster said, telling us that although the start-up business was set up without any kind of external investment and revenue is still scarce, improvements are in the pipeline.
“We’ve just launched our new mobile responsive website and hope to start covering sea activities all along the Portuguese coast in 2015.”
www.seabookings.com
Photo: Femke Irik (left) and Bo Irik
