TRAVELSTART will
strategically fast-track its
accommodation offering
following its purchase of a
majority stake in Cape Townbased
SafariNow.com, South
Africa’s largest accommodation
booking website.
Stephan Ekbergh, ceo of
Travelstart, confirmed that
while the businesses would
run independently with their
own brands and teams,
Travelstart was planning to
add local products sourced
by SafariNow to the B2B
accommodation offerings on
the Travelstart website.
Because Travelstart’s top
flight routes were all to
South African cities, Stephan
said these would pair well
with the extensive local
accommodation offering of
SafariNow.
While plans for how the deal
would affect agents booking
through the Next agent portal
have not yet been formally
discussed between the two
companies, it is possible
that the agent portal could
also expand to include
accommodation offerings for
B2B sales in future. “We are
aware that SafariNow will start
doing quite a few corporate
bookings via TMCs,” added
Stephan.
Mary Shilleto, md of XL
Thompsons Travel, said
Travelstart had always been a
disruptor and that the industry
was likely to see many more
emerge in 2018 as travel
companies were currently
looking closely at how their
business models worked and
where opportunities to develop
them further lay.
“I imagine that Travelstart’s
expansion into the
accommodation sector will
see what is already a strong
product growing stronger.”
