MOSSEL Bay’s Back Road Safaris has been selected as the local market operators (MPOs) for an international travel portal that promotes developing-world tourism products, making them accessible and bookable on line. The portal – www.whl.travel – sells accommodation, attractions and tours for selected businesses in every sector of the market, from developing, single-person start-ups to B&Bs, guest lodges and international hotels. The Garden Route site – www.garden-route-tours.travel – was launched in December. “whl.travel aims to be the first-choice in e-business for independent travellers and travel service providers and it achieves this by partnering with MPOs like ourselves because we’re best placed to work directly with the attractions and accommodation providers as well as the travellers in the field,” says Back Road Safaris’ Richard Mellors. whl.travel is owned and operated by a team of people in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, India, South Africa, Switzerland, the USA and Vietnam, with MPOs in these countries and more. “Garden-route-tours.travel took many months to build but we launched with more than 50 local products on board and our offering is growing daily,” says Mellors. To coincide with the launch of the site, Back Road Safaris has opened a walk-in store at 5 Marsh Street, near The Point in Mossel Bay.