Klook turning profitable is good news. And the travel startup's failure to get additional follow-on funding from troubled backer Softbank is unsurprising. Klook has made great strides, but it must someday find an exit for its early investors.
The online travel scene in Asia characterized by fierce competition and high stakes. Booking.com knows that it needs to sort the payment issue and make sure any lingering concerns are put to rest if it wants to stay ahead in the game in the region.
With Gen Z and Millennials making up most of Klook's audience, the experiences marketplace is heavily focused on these groups' spending habits and shifting approaches to discovering new trip ideas.
Online travel marketplace Klook is ending the sale of certain exploitative wildlife attractions on its platform, with a new animal welfare policy, set to come into effect on 31 October.
The tours, activities & experiences market is a lucrative and under-explored opportunity in the travel industry. Its high fragmentation, influx of small suppliers, and rapid shift from offline to online makes it a goldmine for online intermediaries to gain market share from traditional offline players
The fragmentation of the tours and activities sector is an issue for destinations across the globe. But as Saudi Arabia pushes to reinvent its tourism offering, it sees digital booking and distribution as essential to growing its tourism numbers.
Southeast Asia, known for its tech-savvy, mobile first consumers, has an experiences sector that is 80 percent offline, presenting widespread opportunities for the region's tours and activities landscape to become digitized. Stat.
Booking.com expanded the geographic reach of its tours and activities offerings in Asia by entering a long-term strategic partnership with Klook, Booking.com announced Monday.