Mkoya Travel Marketing empowers the backpacking industry

Young independent travellers are known to prefer budget facilities when travelling and the backpacking industry caters for that sector of the market with various products aligned to their needs. Jacques Passier ensures that these entrepreneurs are visible online by creating customized websites and marketing solutions for their various businesses. I chat to him to find out how it all started…

1) Tell us about yourself, when were you born and where are you based?
Mkoya Travel marketing is owned and run by myself and my business partner Miss Sadia Nanabhay. I was born in Johannesburg and moved down to the Cape in 1997. Currently I am based in Cape Town.

2) What is your business all about and what inspired it?
Mkoya Travel Marketing specialises in travel marketing for small businesses. We have found that there are many small business operators that need help formulating a cohesive marketing strategy that helps to build a solid brand identity in a saturated market place.

3) What were you doing before launching your business and when was it launched?
Before Alternative Route and Mkoya Travel Marketing I worked in the restaurant industry at all levels. In-between I also travelled for a few years in South and Eastern Africa, the Middle East and small parts of Europe.

4) How did you know there is a market for your business?
I had help from someone in the industry who gave me the inside track as to what was happening in the backpacker industry and any potential gaps.

5) What planning did you engage before launching?
We did a complete business plan and some scenario planning.

6) How many websites have you created since you launched your business?
About 15. Our own website www.alternativeroute.net is already in its third incarnation with another being built as we speak.

7) I notice Joomla is your preferred Content Management System, what’s so unique about it as opposed to wordpress?
Joomla is meant more for content management over WordPress that is more specifically meant for blogging. As with anything, their different roles can be interchanged depending on the user’s needs.

Why is the business focused on the tourism industry and more on the backpackers sector?
Not sure.

9) I recall getting a copy of Alternative Route at my stay in Sondzela in Swaziland two years ago, how is your publication different to CoastToCoast?
Alternative Route presents information in a more straight-up fashion. Alternative Route is also a visual guide with its inclusion of colour photographs.

10) What is your opinion of booking engines in growing the small lodging sector, do you recommend any to your clients?
Most of our clients use Hostelworld as their preferred booking engine. For point of entry lodges a booking engine is a necessity not an option.

11) Do you use in-house web designers or you outsource?
We are more facilitators than designers. Many of the designs we use are off the shelf bought templates. Our job is to individualize the template and to do the data structure planning and design.

12) Given an opportunity to start all over again, what would you do differently in launching your business and why?
Plan more, do more market research, get more funding!

13) What do you like and dislike about your industry?
I like the relaxed atmosphere.

14) How do you unwind after a busy day in the office?
I play records and spend hours tweaking my sound system in search of audio nirvana.

15) Is your family involved in the business?
No

16) What are your short and long-term business plans?
Both our short and long term strategy is to make more money than what is needed to pay the rent. We would like to employ a staff to increase our capacity.

17) Is your business affected by the current economic climate?
Advertising is the first cost that a business in crisis will cut. For now most of our clients have been stable but we do foresee that a few sitting on the periphery of sustainability might ultimately fail.