AT&T Travel re-launches, partners with SA travel consortium
Kabelo Boranabi | Tuesday February 13, 2024 06:00
The travel agency has been in business since 2019. Speaking at the re-launch ceremony on Thursday, AT&T Group of Companies’ director, Abel Monnakgotla said the travel agency has steadily recovered from the impact of COVID-19 and hence the need to raise awareness about its existence in the market. The company offers amongst others, airline reservations, air travel insurance, VISA application assistance services, hotel bookings and holiday packages. Monnakgotla revealed at the ceremony that AT&T Travel went into a partnership with South African travel consortium, Tourvest.
He said the partnership will help broaden the travel destination offered by AT&T Monnakgotla aiding in giving the best services to potential clients. “We are part of a group called Tourvest. In this industry as you go in expos like World Tourism Market, you would know that you cannot operate in silo. You need to partner with a lot of travel agencies, you need to belong to a group that holds hotels across the world, car rentals. This is also to make sure we heavily participate in the SADC industry,” Monnakgotla said. Tourvest hosts over 100 travel agencies in South Africa and the region and AT&T Travel will enjoy unfettered access to regional markets, such as South Africa, Namibia among others.
For his part, the Minister of Entrepreneurship, Karabo Gare said the partnership between AT&T Travel and Tourvest will help turn the local company into a sizeable regional player in the tour and travel business market. Gare said it is a collaborative effort worthy of the government commendation, particularly at a time, that the industry is emerging from the debilitating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I wish to underscore that an arrangement of this magnitude is not an event but a process that must be monitored and evaluated periodically; in order for it to realise its potential in terms of job creation, capital inflows, resilience and sustainability,” said Gare.
“This collaborative effort is a deliberate intervention by the leaders, in the tour and travel business industry to give fresh impetus to Botswana's concerted efforts to promote and sustain regional integration and investment promotion.” AT&T Group of Companies has been in the transport and travel business for over two decades and has amongst others AT&T Transport, Macheng Investment (real estate company), Macheng Business Service, AT&T Rentals and Shuttle Services under it.