whl.travel’s Garden Route web site – www.garden-route-tours.travel – is looking to increase its presence in the George-Sedgefield-Knysna-Plett-Tsitsikamma area.

whl.travel – an international portal that was started as a way of making tourism products in the developing world accessible and bookable on line, but which now sells accommodation, attractions and tours in every sector of the market – appointed Mossel Bay’s Back Road Safaris as its local market place operator (MPO) in 2008.

whl.travel aims to connect experienced independent travellers (who like journeying off the beaten track) with local inbound tour operators (who know all the great products and services in their areas). It achieves this by supplying its very sophisticated e-commerce platform to its MPOs, who then load the information about local products, and process the bookings that it attracts. The company then markets these products and drives traffic and bookings through search engine optimisation, global, regional and local affiliate partners, WHL network referrals, and social media marketing.

The result is a unique, web-based, e-business solution that provides genuine market access for smaller hotels, guesthouses and tour operators – and which gives www.garden-route-tours.travel a real edge when it comes to attracting visitors to the Garden Route.

Up to now, though, the fact that Back Road Safaris is based in Mossel Bay has meant that the selection of accommodation and tourism attractions on www.garden-route-tours.travel has tended to focus on the western half of the Garden Route.

It’s now looking to increase the number of operators and product owners in the George – Knysna – Plett – Tsitsikamma area.

Signing up with www.garden-route-tours.travel is free (commissions are payable on bookings), and the site has already proved its worth – it’s been delivering bookings since it launched two years ago.

By offering a broader spectrum of accommodation and attractions in the Garden Route, and by leveraging whl.travel’s international marketing together with This Tourism Week’s 10,000-strong database, Back Road Safaris and This Tourism Week are hoping to make a real and positive contribution to increasing tourism to the Garden Route.

To sign up with www.garden-route-tours.travell, please contact Jauckie Viljoen on 083 262 2307, or Martin Hatchuel on 084 951 0574, or martin [at] thistourismweek.co.za.

Go here for whl.travel’s South Africa site.