Travel Activities Sector to Reach US$183 Billion by 2020

Vaishali Dar May 04, 2018

What made you start Klook? Has India accepted this product?

Klook is the short form of ‘Keep looking’ and was founded in Hong Kong in 2014. When I was travelling to Nepal with my co-founder Ethan Lin in 2013, we faced a lot of challenges while planning and booking activities. That’s when the idea of Klook came to my mind. Klook is an in-destination services booking platform that can resolve these pain-points for travellers. The aim is to offer simple and convenient access to the book and enjoy attractions, local experiences, and services worldwide at an exclusive price.

The travel activities sector has a strong growth potential. According to Phocuswright, the sector is predicted to reach US$183b by 2020. The sector is fragmented as operators often lack resources to upgrade their infrastructure. Hence, the process of travel activities sector transitioning from offline to online has been slow. Our strong network of quality suppliers provides an unparalleled opportunity to curate travel services making Klook the go-to platform for booking travel activities and services.

Since its inception, we have seen a significant number of Indian outbound travellers booking travel activities for Southeast Asian destinations through our website and app. Some of the popular destinations include UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Langkawi. We understand the local market and offer both domestic and international product that a traveller can easily select and book. To further provide better services to our users in India, we have set up an office in Mumbai last year.

Is India one of the most popular destinations at Klook?

While our platform is popular for Indian travellers to arrange their trips for outbound destinations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and more, we also see tremendous growth for destinations like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and metro cities. Most of the travellers prefer experiencing picturesque sites along with safety, hassle-free of planning, booking and finally travelling to a destination. On Klook, travellers have access to choose from an array of activities listed across 12 cities in India. Some of the popular tours booked on our platform include Delhi to Agra – Taj Mahal tours, Mumbai city tours, Dharavi Slum Walking Tour, Water and Adventure activities in Goa, inter-city car transfers and more.

What is the USP of Klook?

Over the years we have seen the trend of Indian travellers who have moved away from traditional ways of booking itineraries and tour packages to becoming free independent travellers (FITs). Also, with the growing number of smart Indian travellers who are aware of the whereabouts of booking their itineraries are amongst those tech-savvy travellers who know how to compare prices online and choose the best offer. Travellers now want to book their things-to-do online with a trusted travel activities platform.

With over 40,000 travel services and experiences in 200+destinations to choose from, Klook offers travellers instant access to customise their itineraries on Klook’s website and mobile app at exclusive prices. With direct partnerships with operators, we create transparency between travellers and operators. This eventually benefits travellers by providing them with better service and more affordable pricing.

To make travel hassle-free we provide:

● Hand-picked experiences by curators - Most of the experiences and activities sold to travellers are first experienced by our team of travel experts. Wherever we can’t be, our community of travel curators also provide feedbacks to constantly refine our lineup of offerings.

● Seamless and secure booking - We want to make everything about travelling convenient, easy and appealing. This philosophy is rightly reflected in our iOS and Android App, which is not only designed to be visually appealing but also frictionless, allowing travellers to browse and book from anywhere, anytime. We also ensure instant confirmations for the majority of our products. We also work closely with Apple, Google, and WeChat to provide payment solutions that are convenient and secure.

What is your business model? Tell us about your technology?

Klook works with a plethora of suppliers globally and offers a splendid list of tourist attractions from renowned companies such as Universal Studios in Singapore, Hong Kong Disneyland to leading local operators such as Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. We integrate cutting-edge travel suppliers’ solutions including API integration and merchant solution. By doing so, this makes instant confirmation and QR code redemption possible. We offer instant confirmation for most popular things-to-do, on-demanding bookings for the spontaneous travellers, and providing e-vouchers to skip-the-queue with a paperless ticket. Klook earns from commission derived from each booking. Our team directly partners with operators worldwide to provide customers with exclusive deals at the best-discounted prices, often saving as much as 60% off regular prices.

Tell us about your expansion plans.

Our team consists of over 500 globetrotters from 20 different nationalities with offices located across 15 cities. We are also in the process of launching our US office to curate travel services in the Americas.

On the business front, we will continue to expand our two main offerings in:

● Destinations: We are already strong in key markets such as in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong where there is substantial growth in regions like India, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and now America and Europe.

● Products: We began with offering attraction tickets, local experiences and one-day tours to users and frequent travellers who booked through our platform. Some of the world’s most popular attractions such as theme parks - Ocean Park Hong Kong, Singapore Zoo, Safari World in Bangkok and Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi which show some of our most popular offerings.

In addition, we further expanded to offer services such as transportation and Wi-Fi and work with well-known service providers to help market their offerings like transportation tickets, local transfers and portable Wi-Fi, essential services which are crucial to travellers.