Unbanked Travelstart customers can now pay for online travel bookings 24/7 at over 50,000 Fawry network locations.

Cairo - 10 February 2015: Travelstart, Egypt's leading online travel agency, today announced the addition of the PayFort pay@store feature to its list of payment options, making it the first Egyptian travel agency to do so. The move will make paying for bookings much easier for Travelstart Egypt's unbanked customers.

Based in Dubai, PayFort is the leading online payment gateway delivering a complete suite of payment solutions that cater to the needs of the region and are tailored to Arab online buying habits and trends. With the pay@store option, customers wishing to pay cash are free from the constraints of paying during Travelstart and bank operating hours. They can now pay at one of the 50,000 points of sale (PS), 6,200 ATMs, and 1,300 post office branches that comprise the nationwide Fawry network.

"When you couple the Egyptian population's reliance on cash-based transactions with its large pool of internet users and propensity to book travel online, it becomes clear that adding the pay@store feature to our list of payment options was a necessary one, and one that is in line with our strategic vision of making booking travel online as simple, flexible, and convenient as possible," said Ahmed Saad, Country Manager of Travelstart Egypt. 

The Egyptian market is ideally suited for pay@store, given that only nine percent of its population has bank accounts -- a figure that is half of the Arab world average of 18 percent. Despite its low rate of banked citizens, Egypt has approximately 38 million internet users, around 40 percent of the population. Even more telling is the fact that in 2013 Egypt recorded $6 billion in online ticketing, or 12 percent of the region's total market. Some 9 percent of hotel bookings made in Egypt are conducted online.

Using the pay@store feature is simple: Travelstart customers select the pay@store option during the payment segment of the online booking process, after which they will receive a payment voucher, which they then use to pay for the booking at a Fawry network location.

The addition of pay@store to Travelstart's payment options is just the latest example of its customer experience-focused strategy. In January 2015, Travelstart launched its flight booking app for iOS and Android phones; the app offers customers the convenience of booking their travel plans anytime, anywhere.

Travelstart is the first fully integrated online travel agency in Egypt and offers users unsurpassed simplicity, choice and flexibility to customize their travel itinerary the way they want, as if they are their own travel agent.

The Travelstart website is available 24/7 - find out more at www.travelstart.com.eg.

About Travelstart
Travelstart is Africa's leading online travel company, empowering business and leisure travelers with the tools and information they need to easily research, plan, book, and experience travel. Travelstart also provides online travel solutions to third party websites through its extensive Affiliate network. Travelstart's international websites include South Africa, Nigeria, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Turkey where it trades as Geziko.

Travelstart Contact:
Passainte Assem
Content Manager
Email: passainte@travelstart.com
Phone: +202 2525 7576
Website: www.travelstart.com.eg 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TravelstartEG
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TravelstartEgypt
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/travelstart
Instagram: instagram.com/travelstarteg/
Pintrest: https://www.pinterest.com/travelstarteg/

Press contact:
Adel Elbendary 
Fourth Dimension Public Relations
14 Syria St., Mohandseen, Cairo, Egypt
Tel: (+202) 3760 9988
Mobile : (+20122) 212 3462
Email : adel@fdpr.net
 
May AbdelHamid
Fourth Dimension Public Relations
14 Syria St., Mohandseen, Cairo, Egypt
Tel: (+202) 3 760 9988
Mobile : (+2) 0122 133 0222
Email : may@fdpr.net

© Press Release 2015