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Book your trip on lineSO you want to go on holiday - despite a poxy rand, high interest rates and the feeling of general economic woe? Instead of using a travel agent, you could use the Internet to plan just about every aspect of your getaway - from buying an air ticket and renting a car to viewing a hotel room before booking it. Internet travel agent Leisure Planet and Internet service provider M-Web have teamed up to bring on-line travel to South Africans. M-Web will incorporate a co-branded version of Leisure Planet's full service leisure travel site (www.leisureplanet.com) which will offer access to on-line flight, car, and hotel bookings as well as Leisure Planet's extensive travel guides and itinerary planning software. Leisure Planet has more than 35 000 hotels on its service, and it has some 50 000 pictures illustrating 11 700 of them. Last year, Internet travel generated revenues of $900-million. This year, the figure is expected to more than double. Says Craig McIntosh, CEO of Leisure Planet: "Having been founded in South Africa, having South African shareholders, and being operated from Cape Town with a 'think global, act local' distribution strategy, it is only appropriate that Leisure Planet should be active in South Africa. "We recognise South Africa as a strong, emerging Internet market with an estimated 750 000 users spread across 400 000 business connections and 150 000 home connections. M-Web is the market leader in the Internet home user sector and is, therefore, the ideal partner for us. "We get around 18 000 bookings for holidays over the Internet each year, a figure that is growing by five percent monthly. "Most of our traffic is from individuals who book their holidays themselves from the convenience of home. "Many consumers trust their travel agents, but they trust themselves more." M-Web intends wrapping other travel and entertainment services around the Leisure Planet core, creating a one-stop shop. In addition, Computicket is revamping its call centre from which it has undertaken to actively recruit local hotels to increase local hotel content. Before discovering Leisure Planet, Computicket had been investigating the possibility of developing a local on-line travel site itself or with other international partners. Says Jeff Carel, Computicket's managing director: "Travel and tourism make up the largest and most dynamic industry in the world and on-line travel is emerging as the biggest of the e-commerce sectors. We believe South Africans will use the service extensively." Access to local airline ticketing and customer support services will be provided to the customers of the co-branded service by Leisure Planet in association with Thompson Tours. Visitors to Leisure Planet log on to the site and can select the service they want. Hotel rooms and exteriors can be viewed and rates and plane schedules are available on line. Travel arrangements such as bookings and car hire can be made at the site.
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