Travel can look effortless from the outside. A hotel is booked, a confirmation arrives and a journey begins.
Behind that simplicity is a complex network of agencies, suppliers, technology and decisions that must work together.
For Nabil Elshafaey, understanding that complexity began early. Growing up between Egypt and Spain taught him that language can bring people closer, but it also showed him that understanding people commercially matters just as much as understanding them culturally.
After studying business at the University of Illinois in the United States, his first job selling group trips at Mapa Tours introduced him to the business of travel. It was there that he discovered something that would remain central to his career: travel is ultimately built on trust.
Almost two decades later, that belief sits behind a group of companies spanning luxury travel operations and B2B technology, from Madrid to the UAE.
From Selling Trips to Running Global Distribution
Nabil did not enter travel through a traditional technology pathway. He entered through people.
Selling group trips exposed him to the practical realities of the industry and showed him that every booking represents a promise between an agency and its customer.
That perspective stayed with him as his career developed across group travel and incentives at Orizonia and then at Barcelo Hotel Group, where he led groups and incentives. Later, at Expedia in Spain, he moved to the market development side and saw how some of the world’s largest platforms think about supply and demand.
A period based between Singapore and Spain followed, as Head of Distribution Partnerships for EMEA, the United States and Australia at BeMyGuest, one of Asia’s leading tours and activities platforms. Working from the Singapore hub gave him a first-hand view of how travel products are distributed across Asia, Europe, America and the Middle East.
Travel suited Nabil because it brought together three things he enjoys: people, numbers and technology. Eventually, those interests converged into something larger than managing bookings.
The technology part he had to build himself. With no technical background or formal training, Nabil taught himself to code and build websites and applications from scratch, first to solve problems his own teams were facing and later to build products of his own.
It is a detail that explains a lot about how he works: when something does not exist, he learns how to make it.
A Founder Before Trekko
Trekko is not Nabil’s first company.
In 2015, he co-founded Visit & Go, the first Arabic-language marketplace for tours and activities in the world, serving travellers directly and later adding a B2B side for agencies. From that experience came Tryps.Tech, the first online B2B distributor of in-destination services in the Middle East, built to supply other platforms with tours, transfers and experiences.
When the pandemic hit, Nabil stepped away from those businesses. Instead of waiting for the market to recover, he used that period to start again from scratch.
Luxury Operations in Europe, the United States and Japan
The first result was StayTick, which began as an accommodation platform and evolved into something larger: StayTick DMC, a luxury tour operator whose team brings more than 30 years of experience across 28 countries in Europe, 12 destinations in the United States and Japan, with a presence that also reaches Latin America and the Middle East.
Private villas, Mercedes S-Class and V-Class fleets, yachts and a support team available 365 days a year from 9 in the morning until 10 at night reflect the level of service the company provides for its partners, which include names such as Emirates Holidays, dnata, Qatar Airways Holidays and Almosafer.
Operating luxury travel from the inside taught Nabil exactly where the technology sold to agencies falls short. That knowledge became the blueprint for his next company.
Building Trekko From Zero
The defining chapter of Nabil’s entrepreneurial journey has been building Trekko, a next-generation bed bank designed to bring a vast hotel inventory into a single search environment.
Today, Trekko gives agencies access to more than three million hotels from 13 leading suppliers in one search, with partners including Emirates Holidays, dnata, TBO and WebBeds, plus transfers in more than 90 countries and access to over 1,400 VIP airport lounges. More than 280 agencies already work on the platform.
But the number that matters most to Nabil may be the one that describes how the company began: zero.
Trekko was built bootstrapped from Madrid, without the scale or resources traditionally associated with global travel-tech giants, and with a founder who writes code himself. That meant competing not simply through funding, but through product thinking, speed and an understanding of what travel agencies actually need.
For Nabil, the achievement is therefore about more than building a platform. It is about proving that serious travel technology can be created outside the traditional centres of the global tech industry.
Technology Designed Around the Agency
The travel industry moves quickly. A hotel may become unavailable. A rate can change. A customer can alter plans late at night. An agency still has to find an answer.
That reality has shaped Nabil’s philosophy. He believes speed matters, but speed only becomes valuable when it solves a real problem.
One example is Trekko’s auto-rebooking, which rechecks eligible refundable bookings twice a day and passes the full saving back to the agency. Another is its zero-markup model: the agency keeps the margin, not the platform.
It is a practical idea built around an everyday commercial problem: what happens when a better rate becomes available after a booking has already been made?
Rather than leaving the agency to constantly monitor prices, technology can do the repetitive work.
For Nabil, that is what useful innovation looks like.
Growing Between Europe and the GCC
Trekko’s next chapter is increasingly international.
With a new base in the UAE, Nabil is focused on expanding the group across the GCC and Europe, strengthening the connection between two important travel markets.
The ambition is not simply to grow the number of users or hotel listings. Long term, Nabil wants Trekko to become the default B2B engine for agencies operating between Europe and the Middle East.
That vision reflects his own background. Having grown up between Egypt and Spain, studied in the United States, worked from Singapore and built companies across Europe and the Middle East, Nabil understands the importance of connecting different markets, languages and commercial cultures.
The UAE now becomes another important point in that journey.
Why Trust Still Matters in Travel
Technology may sit at the centre of Trekko, but Nabil’s philosophy remains deeply human.
He argues that in B2B travel, agencies remember who solves their problem when it matters. A polished presentation may create interest. Picking up the phone at 11 at night creates loyalty.
That principle runs through both sides of the group, from the luxury operations of StayTick DMC to the technology of Trekko.
For Nabil, the goal is not to build technology that simply looks impressive. It is to build something agencies can depend on when the pressure is real.
A Bigger Idea About Who Gets Access to Technology
Nabil’s ambition ultimately extends beyond Trekko itself.
He wants to be remembered for making sophisticated technology accessible to small and mid-sized travel agencies, rather than reserving those advantages for the industry’s largest companies.
The technology may be built for travel professionals, but the underlying idea is about access: creating tools that allow smaller businesses to compete, operate more efficiently and serve their customers with greater capability.
His advice to other founders reflects the same directness: build the product earlier, do not wait for permission, and learn to say no sooner, because not every opportunity is necessarily a good one.
For Nabil Elshafaey, the journey from selling group trips to running a luxury tour operator and building a global travel-tech platform has been shaped by a simple principle: solve real problems, stay close to the people using the product and keep moving.
From Madrid to the UAE, and from Europe toward the GCC, Trekko represents the next stage of that journey.
To follow Nabil Elshafaey’s journey in travel technology, entrepreneurship and the continued growth of Trekko across Europe and the GCC, connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.
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