The only hiccup in growth this year (the section circled in yellow) was due to the Seacom Cable going down. This cable carries much if the Internet Traffic between our South African users and the TravelGround Server in London, so when a section of the cable broke in the middle of the Mediterranean, we were left at the mercy of a repair ship that took almost 2 weeks to get the repair done.

Number of Enquiries Week by Week -- First 6 Months 2010

People tend to think that this magnitude of growth must be linked to the current Soccer World Cup, however most of our customers are South African’s traveling South Africa. Upon analysis of enquiries over the last six months, you can see that over 85% of our business is generated by local interest, pointing strongly towards sustainability.

So here’s hoping our next 6-monthly report is even more impressive!

Below is a sample image of the 4 badges that are available for our members. If you have an accommodation listed on TravelGround.com and you didn’t get your email detailing how to add one to your site, then drop us a mail!

TravelGround.com Membership Badge Samples

Choosing the winners

Since TravelGround opened only 6 months ago we have received almost 250,000 page views (see our blog post about our Traffic Growth in 2009) and thousands of accommodation enquiries, bookings and reviews. To choose the winners we simply calculated which accommodation establishments drew the most attention, potential bussiness and completed business in each region.

So, in truth we didn’t choose the winners – our users did!

The prize

Each winner has received a custom badge made for their website. Below we have a sample of the Award that was designed in-house here at TravelGround.com.

A sample of what each of the awards will look like when displayed in full

And the winners are…

We have 35 winners of TravelGround’s Most Popular Accommodation Awards for 2009. Each award is for a distinct region of South Africa. Click on any of the awards below to see the winner’s page on TravelGround.com.

You can have fun trying to figure out what the winner’s might have in common. You will quickly realise that the winners have extremely varied accommodations – from price ranges to star-gradings to service. Yet the specific prospects of each property drew guests to that page more than any in the surrounding region, and then prompted them to action. If you can figure out the pattern, please let us know!

From humble beginnings…

In March of 2009 we began registering accommodation establishments for our nation-wide South African accommodation website. In early August, less than 6 months later, we opened our brand-new booking service with 380 establishments. During that 1st month we had almost 3,500 pageviews. That traffic resulted in only 10 accommodation leads. Action was required!

To the present…

Today, TravelGround is growing faster than ever. Over the last 6 months we have added an additional 500 accommodation establishments and now list almost 30,000 beds in 900 accommodation establishments across South Africa.

In the month of January we had almost 90,000 page-views which represents an incredible 2500,00% increase in traffic over 6 months, but even more importantly we had over 1000 enquiries for accommodation.

For a more visual representation of our speedy growth, take a look at the graphs below:

In only 6 months our rapidly growing traffic has reached 90,000 pageviews per month, and is still growing fast.

Even after the busy peak season our number of website enquiries has continued to grow. In January, we generated over 1,000 enquiries, and we expect over 1,500 enquiries in February.

We’re excited about our growth thus far, but what really excites us is all the growth that lies ahead!

Welcome to TravelGround: your travel playground…

Behind the scenes, ZissuTravel.com has been re-branding… TravelGround.com is the result and the website will be moving across to this new domain today. But not to worry, all your old links to ZissuTravel.com will still function.

We’re open for bookings…

Despite the inevitable delays caused by the necessary re-branding and server upgrades, TravelGround.com has recently opened its much anticipated secure-booking system to guests from across the globe. We have ensured that the system is smooth and intuitive.

TravelGround.com now has almost 500 prime South African establishments listed on the website, and we are continuing to grow. We look forward to keeping focused on each and every establishment on our website, and giving personalised service to every user.

Individual establishment pages have text descriptions, photographs, maps and booking facilities, but accommodation owners can join without any technical knowledge whatsoever. Most importantly, each page allows local accommodation owners to easily accept online credit card payment – an absolute necessity to take full advantage of the upcoming 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Jonathan Womersley, General Business Manager at ZissuTravel, said, “We plan to spend February and March signing up establishments across Cape Town. That way when we launch our booking facilities to the public we will already list hundreds of accommodations.” It is free for B&Bs and guest houses to list on the website and establishments are only charged commission on bookings payed for through the website. The ZissuTravel website will begin accepting bookings from April first.

For further information please contact Marcel van de Ghinste on 072 212 9392 or visit http://www.zissutravel.com/suppliers/

ZissuTravel’s business model means that local B&Bs and guest houses can be listed on the website for free. Accommodation owner’s will only ever be charged commission when a booking is payed for through the website.

ZissuTravel offers each accommodation establishment a personal, Facebook-inspired page on the ZissuTravel.com site. This means that each establishment can easily manage their page without any technical knowledge whatsoever.  Establishment pages will display text descriptions, photographs, maps and comprehensive activity guides. In fact, ZissuTravel.com already has activity guides for over 100 of Cape Town’s most exciting tourist activities. This free online exposure is further sweetened by access to ZissuTravel’s secure online booking and credit card payment facilities. This will allow local accommodation owners to easily accept payment from the foreign tourist market directly – an absolute necessity to take full advantage of the upcoming 2010 Soccer World Cup.

The 5 man team at ZissuTravel is confident that their website will be well received by the tourism industry and by tourists alike. Jonathan Womersley, General Business Manager at ZissuTravel, stated, “We take our business very seriously, and we believe that the services we offer will add a lot of value to the local industry. This belief stems from the fact that we have a plan and we stick to it. The next step is listing reputable establishments on our site. Once that has been accomplished, we will open the website up to the public.”

Once ZissuTravel has signed up a sufficient number of accommodation establishments in Cape Town then the site’s convenient travel guides, easy to use accommodation search and secure booking facilities will be launched to customers.

About ZissuTravel
ZissuTravel.com is a new accommodation booking website designed to bring more online tourism revenue to Cape Town. ZissuTravel.com provides accommodation owners with easy to manage establishment pages, access to the ZissuTravel online booking process including secure credit card processing, and free online marketing paid for by ZissuTravel. ZissuTravel will attract users because of its user-friendly interface, powerful search abilities and easy and secure booking process. ZissuTravel is a member of ‘Cape Town Tourism’. For further information, contact Marcel van de Ghinste at 072 212 9392 during office hours or visit http://www.zissutravel.com/