AuroraTourism

  urora Tourism

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Aurora Tourism (previously the Tripos Tourism Group) was founded by Lyndon Burt in Johannesburg in 1995. The original business strategy was to invest directly in tourism-related businesses in South Africa and the southern African region, with a special focus on eco-tourism - areas in which the region was considered to have clear "comparative advantage" in a global context.

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1995 was also interesting times for the South African economy and strong growth in domestic demand for both business and leisure travel were anticipated. In the early years, Aurora concentrated on a series of small private company acquisitions and start-ups. Notable acquisitions included Tripos Travel of Johannesburg and Pares Travel of Cape Town - both medium-sized players in the coporate travel management arena and both started in the early 1970s.

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The last 20 years has also been an era of dramatic technological advance in the tools used to market and distribute travel and tourism services. This change has presented both great opportunity and great risk, and Aurora has been cautious in this regard by endeavouring to fully understand the role of technology in its chosen industry, and then to invest in businesses that it considers to implement a level of automation that is appropriate to its market. By way of example, Aurora's original corporate travel management business, Tripos Tourism, offers a 2-tier service whereby its clients can choose between old-fashioned personal service and an Online Booking Tool [OBT] on a transaction by transaction basis. 

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Over the years, the Aurora has added some listed investments to its portfolio which started with the listing of the airline, Comair, in July 1998. This placement of shares was offered on a preferential basis to existing players in the South African travel industry. The listed portfolio includes shares in airlines, hotel operators, safari operators, and other leisure businesses. These investments operate around the world but still predominantly in the southern African region. The Group is currently focusing on growing its listed portfolio. 

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