Go2Africa will launch a full-service and scalable wholesale platform in the first quarter of 2017, offering independent agents and SMEs the ability to create holidays in logistically complex destinations in sub-Saharan Africa for their clients.
The platform, which has been named Bazaruto after the Mozambican island, is a Cloud-based service. It is the concept of Mark Preyer, Go2Africa Chairman, and falls under the management of the MD of Go2Africa, Maija de Rijk-Uys. De Rijk-Uys says the two entities will operate as separate businesses.
Initially, Bazaruto will be a B2B platform for the travel trade, with potential down the line for use by the public and other parties to self-service. Effectively a digital wholesale platform, it will feature an income-model similar to existing inbound wholesalers.
“We expect that initial sign-ups will be predominantly from international agents seeking curated African product, activities and tours, although the platform will be appealing to anyone that currently sells African travel products to end consumers. This will certainly include locally based online tour operators and even product suppliers such as lodge operators that would like to expand their core offering with wider destination tour-operating services,” said De Rijk-Uys.
She said the platform was a solution to SMEs or new entrants into the market needing to develop relationships with suppliers, content management and negotiate rates. Bazaruto’s capability includes seamless checking of both price and accommodation availability; logistically managing and delivering a responsive itinerary to the end-user, and handling the full responsive supplier interface.
“Bazaruto will supply all the components needed to put together an appealing, comprehensive and responsive itinerary with a few clicks. Agents, no matter where they are in the world, will be able offer their clients the same high-quality vacations as a long-standing agency with entrenched supplier relationships and full support teams.”
In terms of training and support, De Rijk-Uys said Bazaruto had been designed with a highly intuitive user interface that would require only light training initially. Users should easily be able to navigate their way around. Because a high proportion of international users in different time zones was anticipated, there would be a 24/7/365 help service.
Asked whether DMCs and other wholesalers could use the platform, De Rijk-Uys said ultimately any business with unique, high-quality African product, could potentially plug into Bazaruto and use it as another distribution channel to reach clients.
The platform has been built using Ruby on Rails, also used by Airbnb and Shopify, and ReactJS.
Last November, Targe Capital, a private equity firm headed by Gary Macdonald (ex RMB Corvest) and Greg Fury (ex Allan Gray), purchased a 40% stake in Go2Africa, bringing a critical investment perspective as well as access to capital that will allow Bazaruto to be a game-changer in the industry.
