By Pierre Kleinhans
1. Background and Inspiration:
What inspired you to start this company? Was there a particular moment or experience that sparked the idea?
I was one of the online travel pioneers when I founded a company LeisurePlan in 1991. We developed leisureplanet.com around a concept of travel that is about the experience, even though we booked logistics like air, car and hotel. Leisureplanet.com became the largest online travel agency (OTA) company in the 1990’s and early 2000’s in Europe. It was the 7th largest European internet company by capitalization prior to the dotcom crash of 2000. Then in 2007 I launched a company called Toureagle that had a lot of content about things to do in and around towns across South Africa, England and Ireland. We found that there was a lot of interest in things to do, but nobody could book these experiences online. So, when there was no funding available for toureagle.com, I pivoted, created a new company and in 2008 started working on building the Activitar system. In 2020 we also founded Shoretime LLC and began to build the Shoretime system. Shoretime will host the global tour library that all cruise lines use so that cruise guests can book experiences in port cities.
The progression of all these businesses were based on the view that the experiences are at the core of the travel and tourism process.
How has your background or personal journey influenced the direction?
I had a firm belief that travel is about attaining valuable life experiences with places and the people who live there and not just about moving around for a change of scenery. I learned the hard way about the incredible cost of building a global consumer travel brand, about how much equity you have to give away in the process and about the effect on corporate decision making when founders are neutered early.
This led me to want to provide technology at the source of inventory, as high upstream in the chain of distribution as possible. I had experience of aggregating customers in a fragmented market with hardly any consolidation of supply.
I realized we could gain market share through technical ingenuity and by listening to customers rather than by deploying capital to buy market share. I found the potential of independence attractive.
2. Vision and Values:
What core values or principles drive Activitar mission and vision?
We want to create real value for our customers and make them really happy by listening very well, being responsive and by surprising them with innovative solutions that they would not even have imagined.
We can only do this by being united as a team, letting everyone contribute, listening well and by caring deeply.
How do you ensure these values are integrated into the day-to-day operations and culture?
It is simple really. If a leader wants a team to be committed to his or her customers, the leader has to be the first to commit and be the most committed. If you want a team to be innovative, you have to be innovative and you have to invite and give space for innovative ideas from the group. If you want people to care for customers and for each other you must first show them that you care for them.
3. Challenges and Growth:
What have been the most significant challenges you’ve faced while building this company?
Raising funds - I came from having lost leisureplanet.com. You get labeled by people who don’t understand or who are unwilling to understand. In the USA you are considered to have learned from experience and therefore to be a lesser risk than a first time entrepreneur. In South Africa you are deemed to personify risk.
Keeping my team together through Covid - We were able to do so because of the quality of the people who work for us, and because we gave equity in exchange for salary sacrifice. Our people also fundamentally believe in the value that Activitar provides and therefore in the future of the business. We will also never forget that the group among our customers who could afford to keep paying the monthly subscription fees during Covid did indeed do so and we owe them much gratitude.
How has Activitar evolved since its inception, and what growth milestones are you most proud of?
Activitar, like any business, started as an idea. I had no employees and I hired a small software company that just started up themselves. This company only had a staff of three at the time and was not very experienced either.
We are now 24 people and strong in technical capability, service and sales. We have a strong culture of unity and live the vision and mission.
Our Activitar platform is internationally recognised as the African leader in our sector and one of the best in the world. Year after year Activitar beats many international companies to the accolade of selection as a GetYourGuide advanced partner. An accolade reserved for only 12 companies among several hundred competitors world wide. It does not matter that we did not raise venture capital or are only a small company.
That Activitar maintains a world class customer retention rate is one of our proudest achievements. Also that we have tripled our business from what it was pre-covid in the two years since the end of the pandemic.
Our Shoretime system which we built from an idea over the last three years is the first of its kind. I am proud that we won our first four year contract for this system with a major cruise line group. This was achieved against major international software companies and incumbents, even before the system was complete. There will be a media announcement about this transaction on the 19th February 2024.
We have proven twice now, since leisureplanet.com was lost, that we can build major software systems from just an idea and win customers ranging from micro enterprises to a multi billion dollar corporation. We have proven, like so many other South African companies, that we are globally competitive and that South Africans companies exhibit a high degree of technical competence.
I recognise that what we have achieved is by the grace given to us and we are thankful and don’t take it for granted. We know that we can improve as individuals, as an organization and that our products can and will improve as we go forward.
4. Leadership and Team Dynamics:
What leadership style do you bring to the table, and how does it impact company culture?
I aim to be accessible. I endeavor to understand and relate to the team as human beings rather than human resources. I endeavor to communicate clearly and show why the vision and mission of the company is both exciting and rewarding to pursue. I try to encourage people wherever possible, even though sometimes you have to say no.
How do you foster innovation and collaboration within your team?
Firstly, as I said, by being creative and innovative myself, and by inviting innovation from the team. I try to provide opportunities for them to tackle things which they might not have had the gumption to just tackle on their own. I also emphasize that they need each other in order to have the most successful outcome and strongly encourage collaboration as the mode of operation.
5. Adaptability and Innovation:
In an ever-evolving landscape, how does the Activitar stay adaptable and innovative?
I am or at least try to be a visionary leader in tourism technology. I have been a world pioneer in online travel e-commerce with leisureplanet.com, early innovator in tours and activities technology with Activitar and pioneer again in shore excursion procurement technology with Shoretime. When you anticipate trends years before they occur you can position how you build and match technology to serve such a future.
6. Future Outlook:
What excites you the most about the future?
The fact that we have set ourselves a platform and a strategy that will allow us to now scale to the level where resources will not be scarce and we will be able to do important things to make our customers super happy.
The prospect to have a global company once again, but built on strong foundations and independent.
Are there any upcoming projects or developments that your audience can look forward to?
The rewriting of the rate management elements of Activitar is going to improve user experience with Activitar enormously.
Our integration with hotel PMS systems once fully deployed and operational will open a strong booking channel and increase access to guests visiting.
We will see a significant increase in available development resources from the second half of the year which will mean a hard push in terms of improvements to the system.
And we are planning to develop strategic alliances that will greatly benefit our customers.
7. Personal Connection:
What is your favorite aspect of Activitar?
It’s already a very comprehensive system. Activitar must increasingly facilitate easy operation of all the day to day functions of all elements of a tours and activity business and increasingly access more and more booking sources.
My favorite aspect is that we are engaged in adding value to people and their businesses. That is what we do. That is our non-negotiable reason for existing.
How do your personal interests or experiences align with the Activitar mission?
I have traveled a great deal around the world on my own and with my family. I love experiencing new people and places and doing activities that facilitate those experiences.