Online travel site wins local backing from Gullivers Pacific

By PETER GRIFFIN IT EDITOR

Online travel website Zuji will take a second crack at entering the New Zealand market this year but will this time have the backing of travel group Gullivers Pacific.

The Asian portal, whose name is Chinese for "footprint", promises to offer something New Zealanders have so far been missing out on - a comprehensive website serving up hot travel and accommodation deals aimed squarely at Kiwi travellers.

Through www.zuji.co.nz, travellers will be able to search deals in New Zealand dollars across 300 airlines, 33,000 hotels, 50 car hire companies and 3000 attractions. Well, that's the promise.

In late 2002, Zuji began advertising for local personnel and prepared a marketing plan as it readied for a local launch. Nothing eventuated.

Zuji's general manager for partnerships, Chad Howard, blamed Zuji's no-show on the fall-out from 2001 terror strikes in the United States.

He said the time was now right to bring Zuji to New Zealand.

David Wafer, Gullivers' managing director, said: "We've not been in the market for looking and booking online. We'll take the existing platform and add New Zealand content."

Gullivers would take care of the back-office ticketing and order fulfilment for travel booked locally. A team would be hired to work solely on Zuji bookings.

A revenue share agreement between Gullivers and Zuji will underpin the partnership.

Wafer could give no indication of whether travellers could look forward to cheaper deals through Zuji.

"We haven't determined the pricing model yet," he said.

Zuji already runs sites in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia, where the operation has grown 200 per cent in the last year.

An initial group of 11 airlines, including Air New Zealand invested US$60 million to get Zuji off the ground. Air New Zealand has since divested its stake but Qantas is a shareholder.

At present online travel bookings are largely channelled through the main airlines, www.airnz.co.nz and www.qantas.co.nz, and smaller players such as www.travelonline.co.nz

But online travel has proved a difficult business for local operators venturing on to the web.

Travel.co.nz lost more than $2 million on revenue of $20 million in the year to June 30, 2003.

Wafer said few local sites except the main airlines had been able to introduce business models that were sustainable in the long term.

But there were advantages in having a site that did not just advertise the offers of a single airline.

Zuji has a big marketing partner in Yahoo! and is based on the technology software engine running the popular US travel portal Travelocity.com, which is also a shareholder in Zuji.

In Australia, Zuji's launch was greeted with strong opposition from travel agents fearing price undercutting.