Skift Take
It's rare to see an independent B2B travel sales and distribution platform succeed, but Bokun's business model not requiring sales commissions is helping the platform scale across Iceland.
Smaller, independent hotel and travel companies typically don’t have large marketing budgets, adequate websites, or any leverage with the online travel booking engines, so it's always a challenge to grow market share.
Also, many well-funded aggregator companies designed to support individual tour operators and sell their activities to a broader consumer base have traditionally not proven to engage buyers at scale.
Launched in Iceland in 2012, however, Bokun is a cloud-based sales and inventory management platform that seems to be bucking that trend. Independent travel and tourism companies can join Bokun to distribute their products, track inventory and sales, and repackage and resell products from other member suppliers.
The company won the Iceland