Travelstart

Last updated
Travelstart
Non-country specific logo for Travelstart.png
Freedom to move
Type of site
Privately held company
Available inEnglish
Founded1999;25 years ago (1999)
Headquarters,
CEOStephan Ekbergh
Key peopleStephan Ekbergh (CEO)
Industry Travel
Internet
Services Flight bookings, accommodation bookings, car hires.
Employees200+
URL travelstart.co.za

Travelstart is an African online travel booking website, offering flights, hotel bookings, car rental, vacation packages and other travel services through an online booking engine [1]

It operates in South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Turkey and Zimbabwe. [2]

The website uses global distribution systems such as Amadeus IT Group and Travelfusion for flights, and CarTrawler for online car hire bookings. Most revenue is generated from Pay per click (PPC) advertising, as well as an extensive affiliate network. [3] All Travelstart websites use Thawte to secure online payments. [4]

The website was founded in Sweden in 1999 by Stephan Ekbergh. Before launching Travelstart, Ekbergh founded Sweden's first online travel agency, Mr Jet (1995). [5] In 2010, Travelstart Nordic was sold to European Travel Interactive AB(eTRAVELi) [6] and the company headquarters was moved to Cape Town, South Africa. [7] [8] Travelstart operates in South Africa since 2006, [9] and emerging markets throughout Africa. [10] In 2012, Travelstart Nigeria was launched. [11] and later Travelstart Egypt, which was located in Maadi district of Greater Cairo.

In December 2019, Travelstart acquired competitor Jumia Travel from Jumia. [12] Under the purchase agreement, Travelstart took control of Jumia Travel's online book websites. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travel agency</span> Retailer that provides tourism-related services

A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destination. Travel agencies can provide outdoor recreation, arranging logistics for luggage and medical items delivery for travellers upon request, public transport timetables, car rentals, and bureau de change services. Travel agencies can also serve as general sales agents for airlines that do not have offices in a specific region. A travel agency's main function is to act as an agent, selling travel products and services on behalf of a supplier. They are also called Travel Advisors. They do not keep inventory in-hand unless they have pre-booked hotel rooms or cabins on a cruise ship for a group travel event such as a wedding, honeymoon, or other group event.

Opodo is a Spanish-owned online travel agency which offers deals in regular and charter flights, low-cost airlines, hotels, car rental, dynamic packages, holiday packages and travel insurance. It is a pan-European enterprise, founded by a consortium of European airlines, including British Airways, Air France, Alitalia, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Austrian Airlines and Finnair. The travel technology provider Amadeus owned 99.4% of the company until 2011, when it was taken over by eDreams ODIGEO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amadeus IT Group</span> Spanish travel technology company

Amadeus IT Group, S.A. is a major Spanish multinational technology company that provides software solutions for the global travel and tourism industry. It is the world's leading provider of travel technology that focus on developing software for airlines, hotels, travel agencies, and other travel-related businesses to enhance their operations and customer experiences.

Cheapflights is a travel fare metasearch engine. The website is part of the Kayak.com subsidiary of Booking Holdings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kayak (company)</span> Travel metasearch engine owned and operated by Booking Holdings

Kayak is a metasearch engine owned and operated by Booking Holdings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hogg Robinson Group</span>

Hogg Robinson Group was a business active in the insurance and latterly the corporate travel management sectors. It was acquired by American Express Global Business Travel in July 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Webjet</span> Australian travel agency

Webjet Limited is a global digital travel business operating and trading in both consumer (B2C) and wholesale (B2B) markets. Webjet Limited's Registered Office is located in Melbourne, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agoda</span> Thailand online travel agency

Agoda.com is an online travel agency catering primarily to consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, with headquarters in Singapore and operations in Bangkok, Thailand. Agoda facilitates reservations for lodging, flights, ground transportation, and activities. It is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings.

Momondo is a travel fare aggregator and travel fare metasearch engine. momondo was founded in Denmark and is today managed by KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings.

eDreams is an online travel agency based in Barcelona, Spain, that offers deals in regular and charter flights, low-cost airlines, hotels, car rental, dynamic packages, holiday packages and travel insurance.

eDreams ODIGEO is a Spanish online travel company that was formed in 2011 as the successor of eDreams with the merger of online travel agencies eDreams and GO Voyages, and the acquisition of Opodo.

Jumia is a Pan-African technology company that is built around a marketplace, logistics service and payment service. The logistics service enables the delivery of packages through a network of local partners while the payment services facilitate the payments of online transactions within Jumia’s ecosystem. It has partnered with more than 100,000 active sellers and individuals and it competes at various levels, indirectly with retailers such as Jiji and Maybrands limited, and is a direct competitor to Konga in Nigeria, and Amazon and Noon in Egypt.

Lastminute.com Group owns several travel brands including lastminute.com, Volagratis, Rumbo, Bravofly, Jetcost, Crocierissime.it, weg.de, and Hotelscan.

Trip.com is a multinational online travel agency headquartered in Singapore. It is one of the world's largest online travel agencies with over 400 million users worldwide, and also the parent of Skyscanner.

Booking Holdings Inc. is an American travel technology company incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and based in Norwalk, Connecticut, that owns and operates several travel fare aggregators and travel fare metasearch engines including namesake and flagship Booking.com, Priceline.com, Agoda.com, Kayak.com, Cheapflights, Rentalcars.com, Momondo, and OpenTable. It operates websites in about 40 languages and 200 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OLX</span> Online marketplace

OLX Group is a Dutch-domiciled online market place headquartered in Amsterdam. The OLX consumer brand originated as OnLine eXchange in 2006. OLX Group is owned by Prosus, the international assets division of Naspers.

Jumia Travel emerged in 2013 as an online travel agency providing online hotel reservations across the African continent within the Africa Internet Group, now known as Jumia Group. In 2019, Jumia Travel was acquired by Travelstart. Travelstart took control of the sales, fulfilment and customer service aspects of Jumia Travel online booking websites in all its operating territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jiji Africa</span> African online marketplace

Jiji is an African online marketplace that provides buyers and sellers with an avenue to meet and exchange goods and services.

HotelOnline is a travel technology company, offering a suite of digital tools for e-commerce, online marketing and operations automation to the hotel industry in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company helps hotels digitize operations and offers managed distribution to online channels, such as Online Travel Agents (OTAs), Global Distribution Systems, and metasearch engines.

GoToGate is an online travel agency and seller of air travel based in Uppsala, Sweden, and one of the most prominent trade names of the Swedish travel corporation Etraveli Group AB. GoToGate claims it serves 30 million customers a year across 77 countries and fills 140 Boeing 737 planes every day. GoToGate was used for a time as the flight provider for Booking.com for various European countries.

References

  1. "A relatively unknown outfit is rapidly becoming one of the biggest web businesses in South Africa", ITWeb Brainstorm, 2010-01-07
  2. "About Us". travelstart.co.za.
  3. "EDEALO Visit to Travelstart HQ in Cape Town"
  4. "Verify SSL Web Server Wildcard Certificate"
  5. "Travel pioneer starts online roll-out in SA", MyBroadband, 2006-08-30
  6. "eTRAVELi köper Travelstart|" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  7. "eTRAVELi acquires competitor Travelstart in Europe" Archived 2013-04-01 at the Wayback Machine , 2010-01-20
  8. May, Kevin (January 21, 2010). "TravelStart sale to eTRAVELi triggers major Scandinavian power shift". Phocuswire.
  9. "A start-up with lots of potential", SouthAfrica.info, 2006-08-31
  10. "Expedia, Travelocity ready India operations", Livemint & The Wall Street Journal, 2007-10-17
  11. "Travelstart Travel Agency Launches in Nigeria" (Press release). May 18, 2012.
  12. "Travelstart takes over rival Jumia Travel, plans to tap new customers | PhocusWire". www.phocuswire.com. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  13. "The Wrap: Travelstart takes over management of Jumia Travel's operations across Africa". WIT. 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2021-01-31.