american express global business travel south africa

Total Programme Management

We offer end-to-end products, services and solutions that are flexible and customer driven.

Global Access & Local Expertise

With a presence in +140 countries, spanning six continents, American Express Global Business Travel connects the world to help your company grow.

Corporate Savings

We take care of the people who take care of your business with trained professionals supported by highly trained ones around the world ready to respond and react for you and your Business Travellers.

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We help our clients travel more and spend less. Our propriety data tools consolidate and integrate trip and spend data.

WELCOME TO BLUESKY CORPORATE TRAVEL

As a regional leader in the Indian Ocean in business travel management, we work with companies of all sizes, to design and manage comprehensive travel programmes that meet their business goals.

BlueSky is a franchisee of American Express Global Business Travel in Mauritius and Reunion island. BlueSky operates in Mayotte and Madagascar as well. When you will partner with us, your company will benefit from a programme that maximises savings and improves programme compliance.

BlueSky delivers exceptional customer service – around the world & around the clock – through our consisters back – end processing, global best facilities & quality assurances.

With the flexibility of BlueSky American Express Global Business Travel, you can choose from a variety of service options – online, offline, onsite – to find the ideal fit for your company. And with 24/7 support, we are available whenever you need us.

BlueSky Corporate travel can provide you with dedicated relationship managers who help you choose an optimum itinerary and manage your company’s travel programme at all points in time. With our 24/7 contact centre at your fingertips, you will have the ability to monitor your travel activities from start to finish and to know exactly what’s going on with your travel programme.

BlueSky brings to your doorstep the unique combination of our regional experience in the Indian Ocean and the strength of our global partner network that spans more than 140 countries. And, with our state-of-the-art contact centre that is PCIDSS certified to reflect the highest industry standards, you can enjoy the best of both worlds as you journey across the Indian Ocean with a globally certified travel partner.

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© 2017 BS Travel Management Ltd d/b/a American Express Global Business Travel. All rights reserved.

American Express Global Business Travel

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Stonewedge Office Park 1 Wedgewood Link Road Bryanston, Johannesburg 2021 Telehone: +27 11 728 0540

Contact the Divisions

Tourvest Accommodation: +27 87 740 9282 Tourvest Destination Management: +27 11 676 3000 Tourvest Travel Services: +27 11 790 0000 Tourvest Financial Services: +27 11 603 9000 Tourvest Destination Retail: +27 11 221 3200

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Postnet Suite No. 17 Private Bag X75 Bryanston 2021

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American Express GBT confirms Tourvest Travel Services as SA partner

American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), the world’s leading business partner for managed travel, has confirmed Tourvest Travel Services as its partner in South Africa.

Following the acquisition of HRG in July 2018, a best-of-both integration strategy has been pursued to create a new GBT that will provide even more value to clients. As part of this process, the global travel partner network will include the best-fit partner in each country drawn from the existing GBT and HRG networks.

A partner for more than 20 years, sharing GBT values and trading as American Express GBT South Africa, Tourvest has been selected because of its highly-skilled people and its commitment to integrating the advanced GBT technology platforms.

HRG clients currently serviced by Rennies Travel will be supported by GBT in moving their programs over to Tourvest. As of now, Rennies Travel is no longer part of the HRG network.

Tourvest CEO Sean Joubert said: “Building on existing relationships and enhancing our product offering to ensure best-in-class customer experiences is core to Tourvest’s philosophy. This exciting customer migration announced by GBT is testament to our long-standing partnership. The HRG clients will be made very welcome by the GBT South Africa family.”

Holger Luikenga, GBT Vice President and head of the global travel partner network, said: “Tourvest is a perfect fit for our global network. The company has been part of the GBT network for more than two decades. We share the same culture and the same commitment to serving clients and their travellers, with great people and advanced travel technology platforms. During this transition phase, we will, as always, be laser-focused on client and traveler care.”

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American Express Global Business Travel confirms Tourvest Travel Services as South African partner

LONDON (February 27, 2019) American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), the world’s leading business partner for managed travel, has confirmed Tourvest Travel Services as its partner in South Africa.

Following the acquisition of HRG in July 2018, a best-of-both integration strategy has been pursued to create a new GBT that will provide even more value to clients. As part of this process, the global travel partner network will include the best-fit partner in each country drawn from the existing GBT and HRG networks.

A partner for more than 20 years, sharing GBT values and trading as American Express GBT South Africa, Tourvest has been selected because of its highly-skilled people and its commitment to integrating the advanced GBT technology platforms.

HRG clients currently serviced by Rennies Travel will be supported by GBT in moving their programs over to Tourvest. As of now, Rennies Travel is no longer part of the HRG network.

Tourvest CEO Sean Joubert said: “Building on existing relationships and enhancing our product offering to ensure best-in-class customer experiences is core to Tourvest’s philosophy. This exciting customer migration announced by GBT is testament to our long-standing partnership. The HRG clients will be made very welcome by the GBT South Africa family.”

Holger Luikenga, GBT Vice President and head of the global travel partner network, said: “Tourvest is a perfect fit for our global network. The company has been part of the GBT network for more than two decades. We share the same culture and the same commitment to serving clients and their travellers, with great people and advanced travel technology platforms. During this transition phase, we will, as always, be laser-focused on client and traveler care.”

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American Express Travel Services South Africa

American Express Travel Services South Africa is developing its continent-wide American Express franchise network to meet the unique requirements of Africa’s rapidly growing oil and gas industries.

This is a company with big resources and a wide umbrella by virtue of its affiliation to Tourvest, Southern Africa’s largest tourism group. American Express Travel Services South Africa forms part of the Tourvest Travel Services division which provides travel management services to many of South Africa’s top 100 companies. Corporate travel is a specialist activity within the organisation as a whole and American Express Travel Services does it well. However it recently took the decision to leverage its network of 23 franchisees across the continent to establish itself in the oil and gas (O&G) industries which are transforming many African economies and promising to bring prosperity to yet more.

Nigeria and Angola are the main established oil producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa while Chad, South Sudan, Uganda, Namibia and South Africa itself are aiming to increase or start production. Recent large scale gas discoveries off the coast of Mozambique and Tanzania have attracted massive overseas investment. “We haverecently taken the decision to establish a dedicated team within the American Express Travel Services business in South Africa to focus exclusively on this industry,” says Clive Jones, Chief Operating Officer. “The needs of the corporations bringing in expatriates, and of those individuals, are so complex and special that they need to be delivered through a separate infrastructure with a different value proposition from our normal corporate travel management process.”

The travel services division does a great deal of work for the mining sector, but being land based, that is a lot easier to manage than O&G clients. The latter tends to work offshore, or in remote places and their travel needs are different, he explains. “These companies depend on expatriates with skills that are scarce in the local markets. Many bookings are not generated in the country in which you are delivering the service.”

This is an industry that employs specialist engineers from Canada, Russia, India or Singapore. They are typically paid from the moment they board the plane in their country of origin until they return, so the client companies like to be assured they will spend as little time as possible sitting in transit lounges. There will generally be an outgoing passenger going on leave for every incoming one, and they can’t leave till their replacement arrives. Travel is therefore a highly business critical activity for the exploration, drilling, support services and supplier companies as well as for the main contractor.

But the routes, from say Russia to a rig lying off the coast of Angola, are complicated. And the fare structure is equally complex – American Express Travel Services staff have had to be trained to understand the concept of ‘marine and offshore’ fares offered by airlines to accredited seafarers. These rates are available only to appointed travel management companies. Generally, the traveller should be travelling to or from a cruise ship, private yacht, commercial vessel, port, or offshore rig. Every airline imposes its own eligibility conditions for the use of these fares and some airlines permit travel by land based staff employed in the shipping industry.

The opportunity is not simply to provide a service to the O&G companies, says Jones. “They go home to spend time with their families or they might travel in Africa or elsewhere using their allowances. We can come in at that point and manage their itinerary, accommodation and leisure time. It takes the kind of specialised travel consulting backup that we can give them, as well as an understanding of the combination of routes and the air fares that apply to them.”

The Cape Town based team is multilingual and able to send out documentation in any language likely to be needed. It is also sensitive to the different cultural needs that might crop up – dietary requirements for example. “We know the right questions to ask!”

The job gets even more demanding when things go wrong for the client. If someone is injured on a rig and needs to be repatriated, delay is not an option. The job is, he says, a combination of the routine, complicated as it may be, and the unexpected. There is never a dull moment.

American Express Travel Services is already carrying out this demanding service for some of the largest oilfield service companies in the world.  Nigeria is the only franchise market where Tourvest owns a significant part of the business. The remaining franchisees in Africa are entirely locally owned.

This local knowledge is something that a service provider, even an American Express Travel Services office, operating outside of Africa could never hope to deliver. Tourvest is a level 3 BEE (black economic empowerment) company, and while that does not give it official status in other countries, it does give it a unique understanding of the emphasis African governments place on using local resources. By working with American Express Travel Services South Africa or one of its locally owned franchisees the client company stands to improve its scorecard.

Tourvest operates businesses which range from travel management companies through to souvenir shops and foreign exchange bureaux, under some 67 sector-leading brands, employing more than 4 000 people. While based in South Africa, it is a global business, with operations in East and West Africa, the United Kingdom and the Caribbean, as well as having principals, associates and clients throughout the world.

Tourvest’s expansion has been impressive since its establishment in 1997. “In 15 years we have become the leading travel group on the continent,” says Jones, “with the vision of catering for every conceivable need the local and international traveller might have:from the duty free on their flight, providing foreign exchange, selling gifts at our airport shops, putting them up at our hotels, feeding them in our restaurants, entertaining them at our game lodges and safaris and managing all their travel from arrival to departure.”

www.americanexpresstravel.co.za

Written by John O'Hanlon, research by Jeff Abbott

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American Express Global Business Travel

   American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) is the world’s leading B2B travel platform and is also SAP Concur’s largest Travel Management Company (TMC) partner. GBT is committed to ensuring the success of our customers that use SAP Concur Travel around the globe. Our deployment, maintenance, navigation, and product support teams are highly trained and skilled in all facets of SAP Concur Travel, handling hundreds of implementations and thousands of support cases annually. GBT and SAP Concur have worked diligently to integrate GBT’s core technology platform with SAP Concur Travel, including our Supply MarketPlaceTM (Hotel), Global Trip RecordTM, Connect ProfileTM, Centralized Ticket Exchange database, and more. Together, our clients benefit from best-in-class traveler care, enhancements in our core platforms, as well as access to the kind of data that helps them better measure savings and address opportunities for their programs. Some of the benefits GBT customers using SAP Concur Travel receive include:    • Our Preferred ExtrasTM program that offers savings and traveler perks is fully integrated into your SAP Concur Travel site.    • SAP Concur and GBT have worked diligently to integrate our core, proprietary technology platform with SAP Concur Travel to deliver a consistently high-quality booking experience.    • The size and strength of our partnership allows GBT to be strong advocates for our clients with SAP Concur. With a direct line to the most important people within support, product development, and product strategy, we use our influence to address the issues and prioritize development to meet your needs.    • GBT has been building and configuring SAP Concur Travel sites since 2004, and we have the experience to quickly build out your site to your specific requirements.    • A proven track record in issue management means that our Program Care support team have all the tools to successfully resolve any issues that may arise from your use of Concur Travel.  

Note :  Locations designated are countries where the TMC has indicated their support of Concur Travel but do not necessarily reflect locations that are authorized for local resale. Contact the TMC partner directly to inquire about their authorized resale markets. 

American Express Global Business Travel confirms Tourvest Travel Services as South African partner

LONDON (February 27, 2019) American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), the world’s leading business partner for managed travel, has confirmed Tourvest Travel Services as its partner in South Africa.

Following the acquisition of HRG in July 2018, a best-of-both integration strategy has been pursued to create a new GBT that will provide even more value to clients. As part of this process, the global travel partner network will include the best-fit partner in each country drawn from the existing GBT and HRG networks.

A partner for more than 20 years, sharing GBT values and trading as American Express GBT South Africa, Tourvest has been selected because of its highly-skilled people and its commitment to integrating the advanced GBT technology platforms.

HRG clients currently serviced by Rennies Travel will be supported by GBT in moving their programs over to Tourvest. As of now, Rennies Travel is no longer part of the HRG network.

Tourvest CEO Sean Joubert said: “Building on existing relationships and enhancing our product offering to ensure best-in-class customer experiences is core to Tourvest’s philosophy. This exciting customer migration announced by GBT is testament to our long-standing partnership. The HRG clients will be made very welcome by the GBT South Africa family.”

Holger Luikenga, GBT Vice President and head of the global travel partner network, said: “Tourvest is a perfect fit for our global network. The company has been part of the GBT network for more than two decades. We share the same culture and the same commitment to serving clients and their travellers, with great people and advanced travel technology platforms. During this transition phase, we will, as always, be laser-focused on client and traveler care.”

Get in touch

Tourvest Accommodation and Activities Head Office  |  Stonewedge Office Park, 1 Wedgewood Link Road, Bryanston  |  +27 10 442 5888 | [email protected]