Ada Zoo Madeleine Maryse: Rysemar-Voyages a Gabonese start-up in local tourism mode.

GABON

In April 2018, Ada Zoo Madeleine Maryse left everything behind professionally to launch her own business, Rysemar-Voyages: a travel agency designed to promote local and international tourism. At 31 years old, the young entrepreneur, a native of Bitam, the second largest city in the province of Woleu-N'tem, in the north of Gabon, has opened the doors of her business in the Charbonnages district (BGFI city) in the first district of the municipality of Libreville. This businesswoman, brimming with energy and ideas, is determined to make her company one of the best, and above all one of the most innovative in the market. In less than two years, she has built up a veritable address book to the point of arousing the admiration of many observers. To find out more, Artiaf went to meet him for an interview. Maryse received us at a café terrace in Libreville dressed in a tailor-made wax loincloth suit.

Artiaf: Maryse, tell us about your company.

Maryse: Rysemar Voyage as its name suggests is a travel agency that opened the doors in Libreville in April 2018. We are first specialized in the sale of airline tickets. But our main mission is to promote tourism and Gabon destination. The company employs two people and our business is doing quite well.

What does Rysemar mean?

"Rysemar" is actually the opposite of my first name "Maryse". Indeed, I once had fun dismembering my name. By reversing the letters it gave me Rysemar which I liked very much.

What could have sparked in you the creation of this company?

Simply the desire to undertake and the desire to be in contact with people.

But people are everywhere. Why especially in a travel agency?

I think that the best places to meet beautiful people are necessarily in sites and situations related to travel. Whether on business trips or tourism, airports, hotels, tourist sites and travel agencies are great places to connect with special people. It's exciting to advise and propose destinations to travelers.

Do you have partnerships outside the city or country?

We have not yet developed partnerships. But discussions and project proposals along these lines are being studied. We are thinking in particular of the promotion of wonderful tourist sites of the country. Selling the destination Gabon remains our priority.

So you plan to expand into tourism made in Gabon if we understand correctly?

Yes, being able to offer complete stays of a weekend or more in the interior of the country has always been an ideal. We have in Gabon wonderful tourist sites such as Mayumba, the Batéké plateaus, national parks, Mont de Cristal to name a few. These landscapes would benefit from being better known and Gabon as a whole at the same time. It is this vision that motivated me at the beginning when I was setting up my company. I told myself that I would focus more on destinations in the interior of the country. However, the realities on the ground are quite different because it is not so easy at all. It requires a lot of financial and logistical resources. We have in Gabon such beautiful landscapes unfortunately, some of them are still very isolated. This does not often make tourists want to visit these areas. With the efforts that are being made at the moment by the public authorities, I think we will get there very soon.

Rysemar Voyage has just celebrated its first anniversary what is your assessment?

A balance sheet filled with hope even if it is true that we are sorely lacking in support. I dare to hope that the government will think of the self-employed entrepreneurs that we are, particularly at the administrative level where we are asking for some relief in the formalities inherent in the creation of businesses, then in the simplification of the methods of calculating and paying contributions and taxes.

Are your customers satisfied with your services?

I hope so! So far I have not received any complaints. I make it a point of honor to be present and available for my customers no matter the time. The innovation in our way of doing things is that we provide services at home. That is, we move towards the customer, thus avoiding him to move.

                                            Maryse during a business meeting in Libreville                                                       

What are your challenges?

As a woman, I meet several. First, discrimination and then harassment. I have the impression that for the same services, men are treated better by customers. I am shocked to note, to regret it, that very often some male clients are led to make me indecent proposals just to grant me a contract. It's absurd! I say and I repeat, I prefer to stay there small travel agency that we are than to give in to this blackmail!

How do you reconcile this demanding job with your family?

Unfortunately, I don't have a family. I am still single and childless. A situation that pains me enormously anyway. Sometimes I stress and feel alone. But hey, I just tell myself that it's a temporary situation, a preparation, a warm-up to my future life as a housewife.

Do you have any plans?

Yes of course! As I told you just now, my ultimate challenge is to participate in the development of local tourism. As soon as the opportunity arises, I will jump on it without hesitation. We have a lot to gain by focusing on tourism in our country.

A word to those who would like to do like you?

You have to dare. It is not said that we succeed every time. Moreover, what we are not told is that the failure rate is much more important than the success rate in entrepreneurship. It is therefore necessary to accept to fail and adapt afterwards. It is the sum of these failures that will make our future success more stable and sustainable.

The last word.

Thanks to Artiaf for allowing me to express myself on his platform. Thank you for what you do in particular to give voice to young entrepreneurs. I strongly believe that this is how we will change things.

Maryse thank you!

Rysemar-Voyage answers the following telephone number:  +241 02 26 52 57

Interview by Armel MBEMBO