Seekers Travel, a subsidiary of JSE-listed travel consortium Tourvest, has partnered with its holding company and Australian Internet travel company Travel.com.au to bring online travel services to South African cyberspace in the form of Travel.co.za.
Launched last night in a sci-fi themed presentation, Travel.co.za punts itself as "taking travel into the fourth dimension". The site has been live since March, and according to CEO Bradley Jay, has the potential to achieve a projected turnover of R37 million by the end of the year. Some 20% of online bookings made in that time have been completely robotic, he says, involving no human support at all.
Jay says Internet travel services are driven by the need to devise alternate streams of revenue, which means they more often than not branch out into providing diverse and specialised travel packages, such as adventure travel.
But the informed traveller is not seduced by slickness of site alone, which is where relevant content comes in. "Content is king," says Jay. Content is generated locally, with support from Travel.com.au.
Jay believes Travel.co.za is operating in a space where "the rest of the travel industry hasn't even started".
The site has partnered locally with portals World Online and IOL, and features reams of travel relevant information. It sports several travel tools, such as Visa requirements, a domestic flight schedule and a comprehensive corporate travel management option. There is even a duty-free online shop where you can purchase something and have it delivered to you during your flight.
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