founded 1999 headquarters cape town western cape south africa key people stephan ekbergh ceo number of employees 150 website www.travelstart.co.za travelstart is one of africa s largest 1 online travel booking websites offering flights hotel bookings car rental vacation packages and other travel services through their online booking engine . 2 as of february 2016 travelstart operates in bahrain botswana egypt kenya kuwait morocco namibia nigeria oman qatar saudi arabia south africa tanzania turkey united arab emirates and zimbabwe . 3 it trades in some territories as geziko . 4 5 contents 1 overview 2 history 2.1 emerging markets 3 media 4 see also 5 references 6 external links overview edit the website uses global distribution systems such as amadeus it group and travelfusion for flights and cartrawler for online car hire bookings . most revenue is generated from pay per click ppc advertising as well as an extensive affiliate network . all travelstart websites use thawte to secure online payments . 6 history edit travelstart was founded in sweden in 1999 by stephan ekbergh . before launching travelstart ekbergh founded sweden s first online travel agency mr jet 1995 . 7 in 2010 travelstart nordic was sold to etraveli and the company headquarters was moved to cape town south africa . 8 9 emerging markets edit since opening in south africa in 2006 10 travelstart has expanded to include emerging markets throughout africa while avoiding countries such as india where the presence of online travel agencies has increased in recent years . 11 in 2012 travelstart nigeria was launched . 12 media edit before the 2010 fifa world cup travelstart made a public call to the south african travel industry to avoid hiking flight prices because of the influx of tourists that were expected to attend the games . 13 on 14 november 2011 travelstart released the results of a survey commissioned by them to expose what they perceived as discrepancies in flight ticket price quoting by traditional bricks and mortar or offline travel agencies in south africa . 14 15 synovate was appointed to conduct the research and when the results were made public in south african media it was met with dispute from a travel industry body called asata association of south african travel agents . 16 17 asata s reaction led travelstart to resign voluntarily from the representative forum for the south african travel industry . 18 the synovate research generated debate in the public domain around the pros and cons of booking travel online . 19 20 see also edit triphobo tripoto traveltriangle touristlink bookit.com holidayme lastminute.com travelzoo viventura thrillophilia references edit leading online travel agency travelstart continues its global expansion with egypt operations cnn ireport 2013 06 19 a relatively unknown outfit is rapidly becoming one of the biggest web businesses in south africa itweb brainstorm 2010 01 07 about us . travelstart.co.za . retrieved 3 february 2016 . travelstart enters turkey with geziko brand arab turkish travel gazette 2012 11 23 travelstart tackles turkey cape business news 2012 11 26 verify ssl web server wildcard certificate travel pioneer starts online roll out in sa mybroadband 2006 08 30 etraveli acquires competitor travelstart in europe 2010 01 20 travelstart sale to etraveli triggers major scandinavian power shift tnooz 2010 01 21 a start up with lots of potential southafrica.info 2006 08 31 expedia travelocity ready india operations livemint & the wall street journal 2007 10 17 travelstart travel agency launches in nigeria . retrieved 2015 07 09 . stop flight price deceit fin24.com 2009 10 07 south africans ripped off by travel agencies mail & guardian 2011 11 14 travel agencies rip off sa consumers fin24.com 2011 11 14 asata responds to flight price shock survey gotravel24 2011 11 15 asata to review travelstart membership after survey furore travel industry review tir 2011 11 21 travelstart resigns from asata press portal 2011 12 05 are sa travellers being taken for a ride gotravel24 2011 11 14 pros and cons of online booking iol shopper 2012 07 09 external links edit travelstart south africa v t e travel search engines search engines busbud cheapflights cheapoair dohop expedia farecompare fromatob.com goeuro google flights hipmunk hotel tonight hotelscombined ixigo.com jetcost jetradar kayak.com lagisatu.com loco2 mobissimo momondo msn travel orbitz priceline.com rome2rio scout skyscanner studentuniverse travelocity trivago voyagermoinscher.com wanderu webjet wego.com whole travel yatra defunct bing travel busjunction sidestep zoombu category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title travelstart & oldid 732177653 categories travel ticket search enginestravel websitesonline travel agenciescompanies established in 1999 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation 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