About Us
The WHL Group believes in improving the travel experience and the ethical standards of tourism from the bottom up and for everyone involved.
WHL Group companies tap into and magnify the excellence of local tourism experts who, alone, are local leaders, but united have become a forceful global presence for the right kind of tourism, bringing to major markets all the local opportunities that make a positive impact on hosts and visitors. By sticking to its values, the WHL Group is now the largest local-travel network in the world, an ensemble of global travel companies that help travellers find unique ways to experience a destination through conscientious local tourism professionals.
The WHL Group is a private company incorporated in Hong Kong and is owned and operated by a team from Australia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, India, South Africa, Switzerland, Syria, the USA, Vietnam and Zambia....probably one of the most diverse holdings for a private company you are likely to find. The whl.travel business is the original business of the WHL Group and started life as a development project in the Mekong region (operated by the IFC, part of the World Bank Group) trying to find a way to get travel product from the developing world online and able to be transacted just as it is in the West. We ended up (after several false starts) with the franchise type model we have today. With this model we have local partners in the destinations who do all the things best done locally (including working directly with the local accommodation providers and with travellers) and whl.travel does all the things best done centrally (technology, web marketing etc.). In March 2006 WHL was spun off from the IFC as a private company.
In building the network of local partners we continued to work with local suppliers of accommodation and tours to help them improve market access and build a more sustainable future. We have done this by providing innovative market access solutions for small and medium scale (SME) accommodation providers, tour operators, transfer companies, restaurants and activity providers. WHL works closely with groups like the IFC, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, the EU, the South Pacific Tourism Organisation, Pacific Trade and Invest and others and is regarded as a leader in SME development in tourism. Hotel Link Solutions for example, is a specialist provider of market access solutions for SME accommodation providers.
Leveraging from the WHL Group’s core assets (a global network of local travel professionals) and sophisticated technology which all partners use to run their business, we started in 2009 to launch specialist branded products. The first was Urban Adventures, our day tour business (a joint venture with Intrepid Travel launched in late 2009), followed by our Green Path Transfers (March 2011) and Gunyah unique packaged experiences (September 2011). Also, in late 2010, we launched Lime&Tonic, a destination guide and member deal site focussing exclusively on restaurants and leisure activities. All these companies are built around local operators who own and operate the businesses, and all of them are active in supporting the local communities they operate in, as well as offering unique experiences for travellers. The WHL Group has been a trailblazer in terms of opening up the long tail of tourism and bringing unique local product to market in partnership with local providers.
The group also has an active blog to tell stories from our network and engage in dialogue with travellers (see The Travel Word) and has co-launched a site called The Local Travel Movement to bring local travel experiences into focus.
Finally, and in keeping with the reason for why we entered this space in the beginning, we have been actively supporting the development of a new independent travel foundation, the Geotourism Development Foundation (a not for profit 501(c)3 entity registered in the USA), driven by people who want to see travel dollars deployed directly in building a sustainable future for destinations throughout the developing world. It is a great initiative building the "handshake" between great local community assets (social, cultural and environmental) and experiential travelers in way which is win:win and sustainable for the long term.