BLACK Friday – or ‘Flyday’
as the promotion has
been dubbed in the
travel industry – has taken off
locally as an opportunity to
boost sales during November.
It is traditionally a slow month
for travel bookings with
corporate clients curtailing
business trips for the year and
leisure clients holding out for
their pre-booked December
holidays.
Theresa Szejwallo, md
of The Travel Corporation
comments: “This is the first
year all our TTC brands had
active Black Friday specials in
the market and the resulting
levels of enquiry over the time
frame were very satisfying.
The promotions definitely got
the phones ringing and I was
happy with the special offers
each of the brands offered
our clients. We’ll definitely
look at doing this again in
2018.” Ruzandri Stoltz, aha
Hotels and Lodges marketing
manager agreed, and said
sales from its promotion had
increased by 136% compared
with its 2016 promotion.
Travelstart claims to be
the first South African travel
company to have adopted
Black Friday promotions in
the local market, with 2017
marking its third successive
year of offerings.
Founder, Stephan Ekbergh,
said this year’s promotion had
run from Thursday, November
23 to ‘Cyber Monday’ on
November 27, and that the
company exceeded its R80m
sales target, reaching a
record R90m over the five-day
promotion.
Stephan said the company
had also seen a spike in
mobile device bookings.
with 26% of its Black Friday
bookings generated from
these devices. Joburg to Cape
Town and Joburg to Mauritius
ranked its top mobile
domestic and international
routes.
Black Friday spoilsports
Stephan says Travelstart’s
online booking site was
plagued with attempts
from unscrupulous travel
agents to book their travel
deals through the consumer
web portal before marking
them up and selling them on
to unsuspecting customers.
Travelstart’s B2B selling
platform, Next, also ran
Black Friday deals, but the
Travelstart website is aimed
purely at consumers. “We
have adapted our terms
and conditions so that we
reserve the right to recharge
travel agents who sell our
tickets with their own markup,”
said Stephen.
“It happens often when
we run campaigns. The
sad thing is that unwitting
consumers end up paying a
lot more for travel than they
should.”
