New online marketplace and booking platform, inAfrica, aims to assist local African tourism suppliers to go to market bridging the gap between SME suppliers and travellers who want to book authentic African experiences online.
“Travelling extensively in Africa, we realised that while much investment was being poured into African communities through various initiatives, a gap still existed between African tourism businesses and travellers looking for authentic experiences,” says inAfrica Founder, Phakamile Hlazo.
“Recent surveys have shown, for instance, that 67% of UK millennial travellers want to book authentic experiences in Africa but have no way of connecting with our exceptional tour guides and hosts in a meaningful and seamless way that will lead them to conclude an online booking.” She says inAfrica was created to make continental travel easier for travellers and to serve as an important growth driver for tour providers in Africa.
The newly launched inAfrica marketplace offers the following services:
- Online bookings via marketplace and direct bookings on tour providers and hosts’ own websites;
- A website builder that enables tour providers and hosts to create an online presence for themselves;
- Online payments in multiple currencies;
- Easy communication between guests and service providers;
- It enables tour providers to create personalised itineraries with quotes;
- Supports authentic guest reviews about the experiences;
- Training functionality to support tour providers and hosts.
Once signed up for the marketplace, suppliers can log in on to the InAfrica website where they can easily enter details to create an experience listed on the site. The site is easy to navigate, offering suppliers simple fields to complete such as title of experience, product type, description, location, directions, pick-up details, images, videos and cancellation terms. The website also offers a mapping experience where tour providers and hosts can enter their actual GPS co-ordinates.
While Hlazo says inAfrica has started operations focusing on South African experiences, the site is scalable and is already expanding to offer experiences in Southern Africa.
Clients visiting the site can engage directly with hosts and tour providers, completing a sale online by making a payment by credit card or by Ozow, which is an instant, ultra-secure EFT payment service.
“International credit cards are accepted on the site, although we encourage South African travellers to rather pay with Ozow, which supports all the local banks, as these payments have lower charges for suppliers, which means that the supplier gets the most revenue out of the experience,” says Hlazo.
inAfrica is also working on a way to integrate with other booking platforms but this option is not presently available. However, Hlazo encourages tour providers to take advantage of the free courses available on sister company Zulu Nomad’s website (https://courses.zulunomad.com) which aim to bridge the gap for suppliers wanting to turn their knowledge into something that could create an income for them.
