Worldhotel-link.com Limited (whl.travel)
April 2009
Who We Are
Worldhotel-link.com Limited (WHL or whl.travel) is a privately held online travel services company. The company is incorporated in Hong Kong and has branch operations in the USA, Vietnam, Australia, South Africa, Czech Republic and Brazil. whl.travel also has two subsidiary companies, WHL Consulting Limited (incorporated in Hong Kong) and Tadidi Inc. (incorporated in Vietnam). See http://www.whl.travel/
What We Do
whl.travel is a grassroots network of travel web sites catering to independent travelers journeying off the beaten track and tired of the limited travel options offered by most online service providers. whl.travel emphasizes responsible travel and keeping things local by focusing on smaller hotels, guesthouses and tour operators, particularly, but not exclusively, in developing countries where it can really make a difference. whl.travel works to ensure that fun and responsibility go hand in hand, and provides distinctive opportunities to travellers of all budgets – basic to no-holds-barred.
What Makes Us Unique
The Local Connection
whl.travel has evolved into a unique franchise model. Its local partners, called MPOs (marketplace operators), serve as a vital on-site lifeline to travellers looking for an often-missing personal touch. MPOs are provided with a complete package (including the technical platform, and web marketing/distribution and management support) that allows for operation of an online travel-booking portal for tours, activities and accommodation. The local partners with local knowledge own, operate and profit from the portals, while being connected to whl.travel’s global network.
Caring for the Destination
Under the banner ‘Caring for the Destination’, whl.travel places strong emphasis on responsible tourism, concentrating on travel experiences that enhance the character of a visited destination. Experiences include local food, aesthetics, culture, heritage and the environment. Until recently, these experiences have been largely incidental to one’s choice of lodging or destination. Now, however, they are at the core of decisions made by travellers wanting to connect.
How We Happened
whl.travel began in 2002 as a pilot project incubated by the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank Group) for bringing small- and medium-sized accommodation and tour providers into the online distribution / booking world.
After a series of very successful trials in the Mekong region, and in the Pacific, whl.travel was spun off as a private company to facilitate the rollout of the model to other regions of the world. The date the company was spun off was March 31st, 2006.
Where We’re Found (see updated information on http://sales.whl.travel/ )
As of end March 2009, whl.travel spanned 157 destinations in 74 countries, with further expansion into more than 100 destinations (including 19 new countries) in the next six months. In addition, whl.travel regional offices are located in Belo Horizonte, Brazil (for South and Central America); Miami (for North America & the Caribbean); Cape Town, South Africa (for Africa); Prague, Czech Republic (for Europe and the Middle East); Sydney, Australia (for Asia and the Pacific) and Saigon, Vietnam (for IT development / support). Operational centres are located in Hong Kong (corporate); Beirut, Lebanon (Web marketing); and Bangalore India (copy).
Partners and Affiliates
whl.travel is developing strong business relationships with other travel organizations and those sharing an interest in work we are doing in responsible travel and improving opportunities for travel providers in the developing world. We are proud already to count the following as organisations we are working with: Lonely Planet, National Geographic, Intrepid, Real Travel, Uptake, Onetime, Travelfish, World Atlas Travel, The World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Inter American Development Bank, GTZ, Ashoka, Go Nomads and Worldnomads.com
Commitment to Sustainable Development
whl.travel began as a development project with the specific aim to provide market access to locally owned and operated travel service providers plus other NGO projects which could leverage from tourism. This connection to the development world is unique in a commercial tourism organisation and has allowed whl.travel to enter into markets otherwise very challenged in places like Africa (Madagascar, Zambia, Tanzania, Senegal, Gambia), Asia/Pacific (the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Timor Leste, Aceh Indonesia) and the Balkans in Southern Europe (Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia). whl.travel intends to retain a close relationship with development organisations, donor agencies and governments and has established a sister entity whl consulting to manage that relationship and actively seek out these types of projects. See http://www.whlconsulting.com.
In addition to opening up market access in developing countries, whl consulting works with the travel product providers such as smaller local hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts, home stays, community-tourism businesses and local tour / activity operators – the SME service providers - to assess online market readiness; to develop high quality digital content needed for global distribution in the online world; to build operational capacity; and to assist with access to finance.
In keeping with our sustainable tourism mission, whl.travel and whl consulting are active participants in promoting green energy, social programs, authentic travel and anything related to the preservation of a destination that makes it unique and special. whl.travel was a founding member of the National Geographic Geotourism Changemakers Competition organising committee: http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/competition/geotourism and will continue its sponsorship and partnership of competition into the future.
Planned Expansion
whl.travel spent the past three years building our core assets..... the technology / business management system, and a global network of partners (our franchisees or MPOs). We are now at a point in our development where we are starting to leverage what we have built by launching both new services across the network and building capacity and skills within the network.
The following are some of the opportunities we are pursuing in the next stage of development:
· Business to Business platform – allowing wholesalers in source markets to tap into a secure system to be able to select and purchase product at wholesale rates for their clients
· Allotment Distribution Business or Global Distribution – utilizing “real time availability” software to allow properties to synchronise their Front Desk Management system with the database to allow for real time availability regardless of the size of the property or communications remoteness
· Expanding our tourism consulting business (see www.whlconsulting.com )
· Leveraging our deep penetration in a number of larger markets (e.g. Vietnam, India and Brazil) to launch domestic online travel booking sites such as CTrip has done in China and Wotif in Australia.
· Leveraging our network of local tour operators and our unique technology do develop and distribute other global experiential travel services in partnership with others. One venture under development currently is Urban Adventures with Intrepid Travel.
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The Elevator Pitch..... a summary of attributes
· whl.travel is unique. Nobody has a model like this in the travel space today and hence nobody can reach deep into destinations like we can. Check out some of our sites (http://www.superagui-travel.com.br/ ; http://www.solomonislands-hotels.travel/ ; http://www.victoriafallszambia.travel/ ; or http://www.vanuatu-hotels.vu/ and see what is offered...then compare with any of the other big global players like Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, Kayak etc. They are lucky to have a handful of accommodations in these destinations, whereas we have many.
· This is one of the very few new supply side plays in online travel in some years. Nearly all the activity of the past 5 years has been on the retail end....with the result that all the big travel sites are now selling the same product everywhere. They all need new product....and we are building it.
· whl.travel is big already and growing fast. We have been busy below the radar building the technology and the network. By end June 2009 we will have over 200 destination sites live in 80 + countries (we’ve already sold 300+ destinations to franchisees) and have sold 57 new destinations in the last 3 months alone (our best months ever ....despite the global financial crisis). Check out our sales platform http://sales.whl.travel/ for information on where we are selling. We have more than 140 sites already with Google Page Rank 4, 5 or 6 and in Google search we are mostly a top 3 site for popular key words at the destination level on sites over 18 months old.
· We have some great partners signed and will commence distribution via them in 2009 (these include Lonely Planet, Real Travel, Intrepid Travel, Wego, Onetime, Go Nomads, etc.). We continue as well to work with groups like the World Bank, IFC, USAid, IADB, GTZ and others .......as we are the only travel group with the technology and business systems to build effective travel distribution for developing countries. USAid has commissioned a special report on IT for development which will feature the whl.travel business. We have spun off the consulting activities into a subsidiary company (WHL Consulting ..... http://www.whlconsulting.com ).
· A new platform (Release 4.0) with improved functionality for the tour business, ability to create multi-lingual sites and add new service modules easily, plus B2B functionality will be released in September 2009.
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