Global accommodation specialist Wotif.com has strengthened its destination focus on South Africa by opening an office in Cape Town. Wotif.com also has offices in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
The company has seen rapid expansion since 2006 and due to consumer demand has decided to add Africa to its portfolio. Wotif.com’s Executive General Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Matthew Harris explains: “We had always intended to launch South Africa as a destination and always felt that the World Cup might kindle our customers’ interest but we couldn’t have anticipated this level of response.”
According to Deloitte, South Africa saw an unprecedented 120% increase in revPAR (revenue per available room) during the World Cup, a figure that dwarfs the 33% increase that Germany experienced during the 2006 tournament. “We responded to demand, which is something all good businesses must do in order to stay successful. Wotif has always received tremendous levels of repeat business and the only way that this can continue is by listening to your customers and catering to their needs,” says Harris. “We are also very fortunate to be able to second experienced product manager Kevin Rautenbach from our Asia business unit to helm our South African operations.”
Another key element in this launch will be the iPhone version of the Wotif.com site that the company launched last year. Figures by World Wide Worx indicate that potentially almost twice as many South Africans access the Internet via mobile than domestic computer, Wotif.com said it’s looking forward to taking advantage of this mobile technology to increase efficiency and customer satisfaction.
