Hotel booking startup Jovago expands to South Sudan

Africa Internet Holding’s (AIH) online hotel booking service has recently expanded to South Sudan. This comes after it initially launched in Nigeria last year in August and then opened up its doors to Kenya and Senegal’s hotels last month.

It now covers over 3 000 local listings from Nigeria, Kenya and Senegal and aims to serve an even wider audience across the continent. As previously noted, the World Bank suggests the tourism industry has contributed just over 2.8% to Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP. Moreover, between 1990 and 2012, the number of tourists have tripled.

Managing director of Jovago, Marek Zmyslowski said in a recent press release, “South Sudan has a growing hotel industry that shows great potential. It has a wide range of high-quality hotels and as its tourism industry continues to grow, Jovago will be able to provide its customers with an efficient and secure way to book hotels in the region online.”

The startup is facing stiff competition from the likes of Nigerian hotels.ng and the Kenyan SleepOut but plans on wooing visitors with its easy and transparent hotel booking platform. Each local hotel is said to have been thoroughly vetted by Jovago’s staff to ensure that all details are accurate and to ensure the quality of the hotel’s services.

Zmyslowski further stated that “This latest expansion underlines our prevailing success in Africa and marks another exciting chapter for Africa’s most popular online booking platform”.

The startup says that it boasts the widest range of African hotels and plans to add even more listings to its site as it continues to expand.