WHL: Making Travel A Little Fairer By Design

• Tweet

• Tweet

The WHL mission is to support sustainable tourism and suppliers at the bottom of the pyramid. The company resulted from a pilot project financed by the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank Group) to assist small and medium enterprise (SME) accommodation providers in the Mekong region with marketing their products online. Whilst accommodation providers in the 3 star plus category were able to access generic data service (GDS) networks and other web based distribution sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Wotif, etc. many smaller accommodation providers were unable to. The reasons were varied but included:

• A lack of computer facilities
• Poor English language skills
• Infrastructure issues
• Poor business and Internet skills
• No knowledge of online distribution options etc.

To overcome these problems – bridging the last mile – required us to work with a local representative in the destination, someone with both travel expertise and Internet access. These local representatives (WHL calls them MPOs – Marketplace Operators) own and operate the booking business.

Local Representatives (MPOs)

The MPOs do all those things best (and cheapest) done locally:

• Contract all the local suppliers (accommodation, tours, activities).
• Load and maintain content in the WHL database (supported by a team of WHL copy editors and trainers using Skype for online training).
• Process the bookings.

The MPOs can select various online payment options like using their own online merchant account facilities where they have them, or using the one supplied by WHL. They can also set their own payment terms and commissions. The system is designed so that they can run their entire business from the platform. They are also provided with a global benchmarking facility to monitor their performance against other MPOs in the WHL network.

Global framework

WHL, for its part does those things best and cheapest done globally.

• The technology platform
• The web and other global marketing
• A global payment gateway
• Hosting
• Management support
• Professional copy editor support

The result is something of a first for the online travel booking industry and brings with it real benefits for communities normally out of reach of the web. For example in destinations like the Solomon Islands communication with small accommodation providers on the outer islands is by HF radio. In other destinations it could be by telephone, or even bicycle. This allows travellers to book products previously inaccessible online. For the local communities it is important as it allows them to generate income to keep young people employed locally instead of drifting to larger urban areas.

Helping reduce leakage by keeping more travel dollars in the country

1. Most smaller accommodation providers source everything (food, furniture, etc.) locally unlike many larger accommodation providers who import a lot. By helping to build business for the little guys more money is retained in the destination.
2. Around 80% of WHL booking commissions are retained by the MPOs in-country, the balance being for WHL fees. Other global booking sites and travel agents in the supply countries take 100% of the booking commissions (which can be very high – up to 20-40%) off-shore.
3. Finally, WHL itself has set up most of its operational teams in emerging economies – the technology team in Vietnam, the copy writing team in India. This not only keeps costs low on the WHL side (allowing us to keep fees to MPOs low) but it also allows us to get more tourism dollars back into the developing world.

After proving the model in the Mekong, WHL became a private company in March 2006 and for the past two and a half years has continued to build the network, the product and the underlying technology. As of November 2008 we had some 230 destination sites signed up with MPOs in over 80 countries, of which over 200 should be live by the end of March 2009. This represents around 6500 accommodation providers and over 1000 tours and activities. You can follow the development of our network on our sales platform. The MPOs are nearly all local inbound tour operators with a passion for their destination, helping the little guys and have a focus on encouraging sustainable tourism.

We have had a rather low profile till now as we needed to build the network and the systems to a point where we could plug into global distribution channels…however in 2009 you should start seeing a lot more of us. Obviously we are looking to independent travellers with an interest in travelling off the beaten track and supporting local communities to become our core demographic.