AFTER four and a half
years, Travelstart
has discontinued its
agent booking platform,
neXt. Commenting on the
decision, ceo Stephan
Ekbergh said: “Serving the
ITC community is no longer
in line with [the company’s]
vision.”
“As a company who
develops several digital
products, we need to
consider where we believe
the future is. We will
continue to develop new
products but also halt
those that we no longer
believe in,” he told TNW.
Stephan added that
neXt did not fit its core
business, which was to
offer the most affordable
fares to consumer and
corporate travellers
directly.
Travelstart has committed
to continuing to support
existing neXt bookings,
advising agents to email
them should clients’ need
to amend their bookings.
When asked if neXt
agents could now make
use of the Travelstart
consumer website for
bookings, a spokesperson
told TNW that travelstart.
co.za was intended to pass
on the best deals directly
to the consumer. He
acknowledged that agents
are using the direct portal
but said that policing this
use was not a priority for
Travelstart.
Rian Bornman, md
of FlightSiteAgent (a
direct competitor) said
FlightSiteAgent was thriving
in the space, with over
400 active agent users.
FlightSiteAgent also
offers a web-based portal
allowing agents without
GDS experience to book
tickets.
“I believe that the nonGDS
segment continues
to be overlooked by
incumbents because the
segment does not present
lucrative return on margin
without scale. While the
numbers are important,
we are building scale
organically by investing in
travel entrepreneurs for the
long term,” said Rian.
Mladen Lukic, gm of
Travel Counsellors in
South Africa, says neXt’s
closure was unlikely to
have much of an impact
on the ITC market as
they understood it. He
explained that the term ITC
could not be homogenously
classified as a group of
home workers interested in
selling travel. As a result,
he said that the non-GDS
market that neXt serviced
differed to the professional
ITC market that Travel
Counsellors operated in.
He also added that
any business strategy
which opened entrance
to the travel industry to
non-professionals was
an irresponsible one,
explaining that agents
needed consulting
experience and an
understanding of the
implications of handling
secure client information.
