Online news service for international travel trade

Says Natalia Thomson, manager of Now Media's travel publications: “After conducting extensive research among the local and international trade involved in inbound travel to Southern Africa and Eastern Africa, we realised there was a significant gap and we decided to use our expertise and content to provide an electronic tailor-made tourism trade platform, driven by a company and individuals who know the inbound industry, its issues and its players.

“What gives the online site www.Travelhub.co.za its competitive edge is that it was formulated and developed based on input and suggestions from the inbound trade itself.”

According to Thomson, the site will be available to overseas tour operators, overseas specialist retailers and anybody working in the inbound trade in Southern Africa. Government, airline and media will also be able to access the site. “A later consumer version is also being considered,” says Thomson.

Key features include the daily news platform, currently called Travel News Now – which will be renamed TravelHub News – a weekly news highlights package in different languages (the first one will be in Mandarin), video news, photo gallery, eBrochures, product database comprising tourism product throughout the southern African community, including Kenya, an itinerary builder, research information and destination information for each country and tourism region.

“We hope to establish this as the only site the travel trade marketing and selling Southern Africa will ever need. We don't want them to have to go to 50 different sites to get the info they need to sell the region. They should be able to get all they need from one site – hence the tagline: the only site you'll ever need!” elaborates Thomson.

No shortage of websites

Thomson says while there is no shortage of websites on travel and tours to Southern Africa – “One need only type South Africa travel in Google and you'll come up with thousands of pages,” she says – the difference is this site really will be the site where the trade's tourism questions are answered and if they aren't, they will encourage ongoing feedback and input so they can ensure their trade partner's needs are being met.

“Who else does a weekly Mandarin newsletter for trade in China interested in selling Southern Africa? We also have a long track record of providing content for this specific inbound market and we're country agnostic, so unlike a tourism authority, we can showcase the entire region,” Thomson explains.

According to her, a key component of the site is its rich media capability. Not only does the home page open up a product or destination video, but it has value-added features such as eBrochures, video news and webcasting promotional videos, to name but a few, she says.

Speficifically designed

The site was specifically designed to provide simple access and is broken down into easily navigable sections: news, product search, destination information and trade tools (photo gallery and eBrochures and itinerary builder) with an advanced search facility.

Thomson says even the news has been tailored to the specifications of the user. “By completing the quick, easy registration form, users can choose the type of news they want to see on their own custom-made news page. This is reflected every time they visit the site,” she explains.

The ultimate goal – which forms part of the Now Media group's overall ethos – is to boost tourism business to the region by ensuring that stakeholders buying tourism products are correctly informed, giving them all the information they need at their fingertips as well as easy and immediate access to the products/services/destination.

“The easier we make it for a tour operator or travel agent to sell the destination or the product, the more travellers we will see come to our shores,” concludes Thomson.