Website formed to promote African tourism industry
Tourists view giraffes during their safari at Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania. PHOTO|AFRICAIMAGELIBRARY.COM
What you need to know:
- SafariBookings is the brainchild of Dutch entrepreneur Wouter Vergeer (34), who discovered the need for such a resource while searching for options to book his own Tanzanian safari five years ago.
Dar es Salaam. A new website; www.SafariBookings.com, has been established to market African tourism and guide essential travellers for African safaris.
SafariBookings is the brainchild of Dutch entrepreneur Wouter Vergeer (34), who discovered the need for such a resource while searching for options to book his own Tanzanian safari five years ago.
Finding there was no one-stop-shop to make comparisons between tour companies and the tours they offered, he created one.
“In addition to simplifying the process of safari ‘comparison shopping’, the site hosts a compilation of over 2,300 user reviews of travellers from 53 nations along with expert reviews from such notable Tanzania guidebook authors as Mary Fitzpatrick and Tim Bewer (Lonely Planet), Philip Briggs (Bradt) and Lizzie Williams (Footprint),” says Vergeer.
“Showcased are over 3,500 photos provided by award-winning photographers Michael Poliza, Ariadne van Zandbergen and Heinrich van den Berg.”
Serving those who wish to find their ultimate safari experience and operators wishing to promote their tours and accommodation, SafariBookings offers an easy-to-use, stress-free interface for all parties.
To date, 210 specialised safari operators are represented on the site offering 368 safari tours, and the number continues to grow. Never before has there been such an all-encompassing resource devoted to the African safari offered to the online public.
Along with this impressive databank of reviews, the quantity of editorial content on the eight chief safari countries and their 140 parks is unmatched by any other source. Absent from most other resources, SafariBookings includes climate charts for all parks and videos of all countries covered on the site.
Expert information regarding wildlife, birding, weather and the best times to visit each destination, as well as the inclusion of country and park maps, make the site and invaluable safari research tool which is second-to-none for both tourists and tour operators.
