Despegar Believes Financial Tech Will Hasten an Online Travel Recovery in Latin America
Photo Credit: Tourists at Iguazu Falls, one of the world's great natural wonders, on the border of Brazil and Argentina. Online travel booking company Despegar has bought fintech firm Koin as a tool to appeal to many offline travel buyers who don't use banks. Adobe / R.M. Nunes
Skift Take
Online travel brands can no longer count on paid marketing alone to drive growth as they try to penetrate developing markets. Despegar is ahead of its larger global rivals in embracing "fintech." It sees consumer loans as a way to appeal to many travel buyers who don't use banks.
The comeback after the pandemic will be kinder to those online travel companies that can persuade consumers who book offline to book online. The opportunity is especially striking in Latin America, where consumers booked about 60 percent of their travel offline before the crisis. Despegar said during an earnings call Thursday it had responded to the opportunity by adding financial technology to its toolkit to woo offline customers.
Argentina-based Despegar on Wednesday closed its acquisition of Koin, a Brazilian company that offers personal loans for travel to consumers. Skift reported earlier on the deal announcement, in which the company took an 84 percent stake by settling receivables for around $4 million
