RECENTLY released car rental vendor figures by Global Distribution System (GDS), Galileo Southern Africa, indicate that three global players dominate the industry - collectively taking 94,3% of the Southern Africa market share.
According to Hennie Smit, marketing manager for Galileo, Imperial leads the market by effectively taking around 38% of the booking system's vendor services.
Avis Rent A Car and Budget Rent A Car make up the remaining 56,3%.
Smit says 95% of travel agencies in Southern Africa use Galileo to access travel products, including car rental, with online services accessed by over 4 600 terminals.
Imperial's managing director, Dawn Jones, says the company "came out tops" in terms of volumes booked via Galileo for the full year 1999 and is currently leading the way in the volumes stakes to May 2000.
"Imperial's focus through the years has been to continuously reinvent itself and build strong relationships with the travel industry. These vendor comparison figures are a reinforcement of our position as market leader in the industry."
Budget Rent A Car's managing director, Nigel Webb, told Travel Now that while it was common knowledge in the industry that Imperial and Avis had a majority market share, it was nevertheless "encouraging" that the Galileo statistics for Budget were "marginally ahead" of the South African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association's (SAVRALA) figures.
"This serves to confirm our success in that arena."
(Adéle Mackenzie)
