Media Release. Immediate. 18 December 2008

whl.travel Opens Garden Route Franchise

An international travel portal that was started as a way of making developing-world tourism products accessible and bookable on line (in the same way as they are in the West) has appointed Mossel Bay’s Back Road Safaris as their local market place operators (MPOs).

The portal - www.whl.travel - now sells accommodation, attractions and tours for selected businesses in every sector of the market - from developing, single-person start-ups to B&Bs, guest lodges and international hotels.

Their Garden Route site - www.garden-route-tours.travel - went live this week.

“whl.travel aims to be the first-choice in e-business for independent travellers and travel service providers - and it achieves this by partnering with MPOs like ourselves because we’re best placed to work directly with the attractions and accommodation providers as well as the travellers in the field,” said Back Road Safaris’ Richard Mellors.

“It works very well for us, too, because they’re best placed to provide things back-room functions like web marketing and the complex technology that goes into a site of this kind.”

whl.travel is owned and operated by a team of people in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, India, South Africa, Switzerland, the USA and Vietnam - and it has MPOs in all these countries and more.

“This gives us unique access to a world of e-marketing specialists - and puts us in the direct line of sight of the would-be traveller when he or she is on line and looking to buy,” said Mr Mellors.

“garden-route-tours.travel took many months to build, but we launched with more than 50 local products on board - and our offering is growing daily.”

To coincide with the launch of the site, Back Road Safaris - which was founded by Mr Mellors’ business partner, Jauckie Viljoen (creator of one of Mossel Bay’s marketing icons, the unique ‘Meet The People Tours’) has opened a walk-in store at 5 Marsh Street, near The Point in Mossel Bay.

“Even before we’d officially launched, we’d booked 12 nights accommodation - just from walk-ins,” said Mr Mellors.

“This is good news for everyone - because the beauty of whl.travel’s business model is that it creates local employment and recycles money into the local economy.”

Mr Mellors said that it was vital for companies like his to work with Mossel Bay Tourism - the municipality’s destination marketing organisation - and that they had concluded an affiliate contract with them which would mean that users of the town’s official site - www.visitmosselbay.co.za - would have direct access to garden-route-tours.travel.
“Our team - Theunis Kotze, Johannes Matalajoe, Tando Kazy, Jauckie and I - will spend the coming months on working on registering accommodation, tours and attractions throughout the Garden Route so that the site can offer travellers the best and widest choice,” he said.

“But most importantly, we’re committed to WHL’s ethos - we’re committed to win-win-win outcomes, to respect and care for individuals, cultures and the environment, to open and honest management and to on-going learning and the transfer of skills.”

Visit whl.travel’s Garden Route Operator - Back Road Safaris - at 5 Marsh Street, Mossel Bay or online at www.garden-route-tours.travel.

ENDS 526 Words

More Information: Richard Mellors or Jauckie Viljoen
info@garden-route-tours.travel
Telephone +27 44 690 8150
Fax: +27 86 621 5325

www.garden-route-tours.travel … a member of whl.travel
5 Marsh Street, Mossel Bay
PO Box 383 Mossel Bay, Western Cape 6500, South Africa

MEDIA RELEASE BY BarefootClients | MARTIN HATCHUEL Barefoot Writer
martin@barefootclients.co.za
Cell +27(0)84 951 0574  |  Telephone +27(0)44 384 1810
Want The Barefoot Benefit? - Visit www.barefootclients.co.za
PROUDLY BAREFOOT - FULLY SOUTH AFRICAN