Tag: Klook

Singapore — New preferences are surfacing as travellers start to emerge from the thick of the COVID pandemic over the past two years. Outbound bookings grew four times in May in APAC compared to earlier this year, signalling that the travel bug is stronger than ever, with overseas travel firmly back on the table, according to a report by travel and leisure e-commerce platform, Klook.

According to the latest traveller trends research, users in APAC prefer travelling with friends, with only 30% expressing interest in taking a spontaneous solo vacation. This is a far cry from pre-pandemic days when 79% of millennials polled were more eager to embark on a solo trip. The insights reveal that travellers are craving shared experiences, especially after the pandemic.

The insights also showed that users in the region want to be pampered. 60% would rather indulge in a luxurious trip than embark on a backpacking holiday. Concurrently, they are also keen on taking slower vacations. 7 in 10 seek a laid-back trip over a rugged budget adventure – Singapore users come in above this average at 80%.

The pandemic has undoubtedly challenged many people, and travellers increasingly seek travel moments that help them unwind and relax to the fullest. In Singapore, 60% of users expressed their preference to relax in the most pampered way possible – starting off with breakfast in bed followed by a relaxing spa day.

Locally in Singapore, research also shows that 60% of users are seeking to escape the sweltering heat with a preference for visiting a cooler destination, compared to the 40% of users who said they prefer a tropical one for their next vacation. Interestingly, Klook’s insights also reveal that 6 out of 10 Singapore users also have a preference to splurge and indulge in luxury.

Sarah Wan, GM of Klook Singapore, said, “Travelling now is more than just taking a mental break. It’s about discovering what brings them joy and reconnecting with loved ones. With travel back on everyone’s agenda, we are excited to bring back the wonders of travel through our wide variety of experiences anytime, anywhere.”

Sydney, Australia – Travel and leisure e-commerce platform Klook, reveals its latest data on the bookings they received since the start of 2022 which makes Victoria the number one destination for inbound tourists representing over 48% of bookings.

Klook data shows that Victoria is the number one destination for inbound tourists, representing over 48% of bookings while New South Wales and Queensland trail at 20% and 16% respectively. New South Wales has been toppled by Victoria as the most popular Australian state for overseas travellers to visit. 

Co-founder and COO, Eric Gnock Fah at Klook heads to Sydney for the Australian Tourism Exchange to share the news. 

According to their data, Melbourne is the top choice for Singaporeans. This renewed interest in Victoria has been driven by Singapore, which has been leading the way for the rebound of international travel to Australia. Tourism Australia research has shown that Singapore flight bookings are up 207% against the same period in 2019.1 79% of activities and experiences booked on Klook from overseas customers since the start of 2022 have been from Singapore, with growing interest from Malaysia and Thailand.

These travellers from Southeast Asia are booking more tours and activities over attractions, revealing that they desire nature and wellness over urban hotspots. Some of the most popular experiences booked are the Great Ocean Road tour, Yarra Valley tour, Phillip Island Nature Parks Penquin Parade and Blue Mountains Scenic World reflecting how they have been craving for a taste of Australian culture and its beautiful nature.

Fah will be touching down in Australia for the first time since 2019 to attend the Australian Tourism Exchange as part of Klook’s ongoing efforts to support Australia’s cross-border travel recovery and bolster the reinvigoration of Australia as a leading travel destination in the Asia Pacific.

Singapore — Klook, a travel and leisure e-commerce platform, alongside the travel search engine company KAYAK, has announced an expanded integration that will enable KAYAK users to access one of the largest inventories of Things-to-Do (TTD) across the Asia-Pacific region.

KAYAK will draw on Klook’s leading supply strength to enable its users to have seamless access to the APAC region’s best TTD. KAYAK users will benefit from a wider range of attractions and experiences as they will now be able to discover over 490,000 activities in over a thousand destinations through Klook on KAYAK’s TTD vertical.

Elia San Martin, VP and GM of KAYAK APAC, said, “We’re excited to be expanding our integration with Klook which will enable KAYAK users to have greater access to an extended variety of attractions and experiences. As travel continues to rebound in the APAC region – we are helping travellers access more travel options than ever before.”

Marcus Yong, VP for global marketing at Klook, commented that they’re delighted to announce this global integration with KAYAK and the enhanced API-connectivity between the two companies will enable the post-pandemic traveller to have seamless access to the best TTD and car rentals globally.

Yong added, “Borders in APAC are gradually opening up as measures ease. This is an opportune time for us to be at the forefront of travel recovery in the region and build on that momentum with KAYAK – especially as it brings more travellers over from the US and Europe to experience joy in Asia.”

Since the integration of car rentals last year, KAYAK users have access to Klook’s car rental coverage that spans over 9000 destinations across 500 vendors, unlocking one of the largest inventories in the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore – Travel and leisure e-commerce platform, Klook, has launched its first end-to-end brand identity, aimed at signalling its commitment to powering the travel ecosystem from customers, travel operators, and partners. This comes at a pivotal time of change in the travel industry as the company gears up to champion a new future of travelling in 2022 and beyond.

The new brand identity, which was created in partnership with global brand agency Superunion, invites people to experience everything with optimism, joyfulness, and enthusiasm. At the heart of the new brand identity is the company’s refreshed brand purpose, ‘To inspire and enable more moments of joy’, reaffirming its pledge to revitalize the travel industry.

Moreover, the rebrand also features an all-new Klook icon, new wordmark, typography, colours, illustrations, and icons. Customers can also expect a more interactive and immersive user experience on the platform, with new rich media formats such as motion graphics, short-form videos, and more exciting content, including travel guides, live streams, and vlog reviews.

Marcus Yong, Klook’s vice president of global marketing, shared that the rebrand marks a fundamental shift in how they engage with their customers, and it means pushing the boundaries and constantly introducing new ways to deliver joyful experiences across all touchpoints of their brand.

“With travel gradually resuming, there is no better time than now to introduce everyone to a new Klook and assist customers in reimagining how they travel in this new environment,” said Yong.

Meanwhile, Ambrish Chaudhry, Superunion’s managing strategy director for Singapore, commented that they are very excited to have played a part in Klook’s rebrand journey. 

“Now more than ever, people recognize the positive impact that overseas travel and local experiences have on our psyche. Klook’s exuberant new brand expression is a celebration of these moments and the joy they provide,” said Chaudhry.

Singapore – Beer brand Heineken in Singapore has launched a special campaign that lets you share your dream holiday and actually gives you a chance to win it and experience it–the closest to reality.

Done in partnership with travel and leisure booking platform Klook, the ‘Heineken Festive Cheers’ campaign involves a brief quiz to match you to your dream holiday. Heineken lets you be carefree with how you envision your dream vacation–and then matches you with something close within the bounds of the beauty of Singapore.

Prompts include where you wish to go, if whether you’d like to escape or explore the city, and what your sighted R & R involves such as a festive party or a scrumptious spread. 

At the heart of the campaign is a special microsite. From 26 November to 24 December 2021, consumers can head to the ‘Heineken Festive Cheers’ site to wing the quiz and be matched to any of the campaign’s prepared holiday packages in Singapore. In the end, participants will be given an exclusive Klook Promo Code for a chance to win it.

With the focus on local tourism, Gerald Yeo, the marketing director of Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore, Heineken’s parent company, said celebrating the holidays doesn’t need necessarily mean traveling somewhere new and that it’s about making time to meet family and friends.

“We look forward to Heineken being at the heart of many celebrations right here in Singapore this season, giving us even more reasons to celebrate with those who matter,” said Yeo. 

Meanwhile, Sarah Wan, Klook’s general manager for Singapore, commented, “Klook is delighted to partner with Heineken to spread festive cheer and joy this year-end. We have made it our mission to uncover hidden gems, feature local merchants, and to pioneer unique experiences here in Singapore. We are confident that this campaign will help bring more awareness to local merchants and shed light on how much Singapore has to offer.” 

Some of the leisure packages that can be won include a staycation for two at Lloyd’s Inn, a staycation at KēSa House, The Unlimited Collection by Oakwood for two, and a guided hike around Keppel by X-Trekkers, among many others. 

Of course, Heineken will be with celebrators at every step of the way. With each leisure package comes a Heineken Blade and a compact 8-liter countertop draught set-up to make sure winners are able to enjoy their Heineken beer as they revel in the holidays. 

In addition to winning experiences, fans could walk away with special Heineken packages such as a six-pack of Heineken or a six-month supply of Heineken. 

Hong Kong – Travel and leisure booking platform, Klook, has announced its joint venture with ZA Tech, the technology venture founded by online insurance ZA International, with the aim to accelerate the availability and accessibility of travel-related insurance to consumers across the globe.

The joint venture will synergize Klook’s global presence and hyper-localized go-to-market strategy alongside ZA Tech’s experience in insurance innovation and technological know-how, ensuring global consumers to have seamless access to a broad selection of travel-related insurance policies at competitive prices.

As part of the agreement, insurers will be able to partner with Klook to feature their insurance products on travel and leisure platforms. Klook will also work closely with insurers to design products that address the pain points of consumers in the new normal. 

C.S. Soong, the vice president of corporate development at Klook, said, “With this, we can further simplify customers’ travel journey, enabling them to discover, book, and purchase all they need during their travels from travel-related insurance to experiences.”

Meanwhile, Young Yang, ZA Tech’s general manager for SEA, commented, “Combining ZA Tech’s cutting-edge solutions and Klook’s extensive market coverage, we are confident we can redefine customers’ travel experience by providing the right insurance product in the right place in a hassle-free way. More exciting developments are to come.” 

Klook will be kickstarting travel-related insurance products on its platform by the end of this year, with a focus on APAC. In addition to the said partnership, ZA Tech will also empower Klook’s platform by exporting its proprietary solution Fusion, to create a seamless digital experience for travelers and the ecosystem partners. 

Moreover, Klook will be leveraging ZA Tech’s customer insights to various markets to strengthen product innovation, customer engagement, and increase insurance penetration.

Singapore – Travel and leisure booking platform Klook has some good news for both its consumers and operators as it will now be expanding the presence of its partner destination brands with a new integration into Google’s ‘Things to do’. 

‘Things to do’ is Google’s display feature that allows consumers to discover, plan and compare prices across activities and attractions around the world. It also allows for the availability of products to be updated and booked in real-time through a partner’s website. 

The integration will now be part of Klook’s digital suite of offerings for travel operators which will enable them to operate as an official site listing on Google Things to do.

Klook’s CCO Wilfred Fan said that the new integration is part of Klook’s commitment to equip and support travel operators with advanced capabilities and tools to achieve online success.

“With the integration of Google Things to do, we continue to build on our strong momentum of digitizing the travel experiences sector and supporting the digital transformation of operators,” said Fan. 

The platform said that more than anything, the new digital offering is a big boost to online consumer engagement without having to do with sophisticated technological development efforts. Furthermore, Klook said that by leveraging the company’s proprietary digital solutions, operators will be able to manage their prices, ticketing, inventory management, and even marketing, while Klook manages the technology from API integration to payment enablement.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Travel and leisure booking platform Klook has successfully concluded its Series E round investment, led by investment fund Aspex Management. The recently concluded investment round has raised US$200M in additional funding, which will be used to develop Klook-powered merchant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

Klook’s merchant SaaS solutions power millions of bookings for more than 2,500 merchants worldwide. Doubling down on its SaaS solutions will enable even more merchants who have had a challenging year to transform and accelerate their business by easily creating an online storefront powered by Klook. This is supported by a backend engine that manages ticketing, distribution, inventory management, marketing, and more. 

“Despite a challenging 2020, we have shown our mettle, turning challenges into growth opportunities with agility and constant innovation. We’ve observed over the past year that consumers have a pent-up desire to explore and enjoy themselves, despite international travel being paused. Instead, they are turning inwards – exploring new and unique experiences right in their backyard,” said Ethan Lin, CEO, and co-founder at Klook (center).

He added, “This new capital further strengthens our leading position to take us from defense to offense, as domestic tourism becomes ubiquitous and international travel gradually returns.”

At the height of the pandemic, Klook onboarded 150% more activities compared to the same period in 2019. With this new capital, the company will accelerate the development and roll-out of its merchant SaaS solutions. Designed to bridge the gaps faced by merchants today, these tools will empower any merchant to build, manage, and scale their business with Klook.

“The travel industry has undoubtedly been hit hard by the pandemic, but Klook has shown resilience and adaptability despite the market headwinds. We believe the transition toward digital bookings will only accelerate post-COVID-19, and that Klook’s ability to reinvent itself as a one-stop-shop for experiences and services across the region puts it in prime position to capitalize on this trend,” said Hermes Li, CIO, and founder of Aspex Management.

Meanwhile, Eric Gnock Fah, COO, and co-founder at Klook (left) commented, “We are setting out to reimagine the next digital leap for the experiences sector which has traditionally been fragmented with offline practices or legacy systems that do not truly address the realities of a post-COVID world. Since day one, Klook has been working closely with our merchants, both big and small, to identify common pain points that we can solve together.”

He added, “With this new funding, we have additional ammunition to accelerate our technology innovation, and truly transform and empower this space for future growth.”

Klook has piloted several of its SaaS tools during the second of 2020 namely ‘Contact Tracing System’ which will be used to trace back clients should the need for tracing ensue, ‘Attractions Plus’ which creates an online itinerary for travel in one app, and ‘Klook! Live’ which is an interactive livestream mobile feature for merchants and users alike.

Hong Kong – Travel has been and is continuously being restricted in the name of safety precautions amid the pandemic, and people are raring to relish their wanderlust, where one of the top reasons is to be able to reconnect with friends. 

Across age brackets, Gen Zs in APAC feel the unhappiest about limited travel for social reconnect, with 85% in the region, according to a survey by travel and leisure booking platform Klook and marketing research firm YouGov. This was followed by Millennials in the region (86%), Gen Xs (81%), and Baby Boomers (77%).

Respondents across APAC were also found to used to use travel to make new friends, where more than half, or 60%, stated they resent not being able to do such in the middle of limited travel. Similarly, Gen Zs accounted for the majority of this group with 70%, which doesn’t come as a surprise with the generation known to value social currency the most.

The study also showed that people want to resume traveling to be able to “escape their from families.” Gen Zs and millennials feel strongly about this with 66% and 62% respectively, which can be attributed to months-long confinement with family members during lockdowns.

Due to lower confidence in traveling and stricter cross-border clearances, the study also found that people are extra careful in spending their vacation leaves at work. Respondents revealed they are having difficulty in using their annual leave or holiday breaks without feeling like they are “wasting it,” which is especially true for Gen Zs (73%) and Millennials (71%). 

Having unearthed such insights, Klook coins the term “Wanderlost,” which it refers to as the longing for travel. 

Its Vice President for APAC Marketing Marcus Yong said, “From wanderlust to wanderlost, people unmistakably miss traveling this 2020 and are keen to scratch that travel itch. Despite international travel restrictions, we can still easily remedy our ‘wanderlost symptoms’ with the endless things-to-do in our own backyard.”

Hong Kong – Travel and leisure booking platform Klook officially unveils the newest feature on its app, an interactive livestream called Klook Live!.

While users on Klook have only been enticed of new food and travel offerings via images and text on the app, users will now be able to view up-close the offerings through interactive and instant video content on Klook Live!. 

The feature has been formally launched in August in five APAC markets Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.

During this period, Klook released a series of hyper-localized content on Klook Live!, featuring offerings from food and dining to hotel staycation packages, where the five markets have reported a 4 times average uplift in conversion rates. This is compared to in-app conversion rates on an average day.

According to the brand’s data, in Thailand, a staycation surprise deal has been sold out in just eight minutes, while in Singapore, two out of three staycation bookings made within 24 hours were direct conversions as a result of the livestream. Both countries also experienced about a two times uplift in revenue compared to an average day. 

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, a number of food and dining exclusive deals were snapped up in less than five minutes. 

With the new feature, the brand aims to introduce traveltainment, to which it refers to as a new form of immersive content that elevates users’ ways of discovering and booking both local and overseas hospitality offerings.

“The pandemic has made users even more critical and discerning when making a purchase. With Klook Live!, we enable users to gain a more authentic look at our offerings, as well as directly ask questions in real-time before buying,” said Marcus Yong, vice president of APAC marketing. 

“Our early success demonstrates that users are increasingly demanding a new way to discover things-to-do, starting from their backyard. It also signals that users prefer a more entertaining, social, and personalized customer experience,” added Yong. 

During the livestream on Klook Live!, customers can interact directly with merchants, express their feelings through emoji and polls, redeem exclusive promo codes and check-out; all while watching a live episode.

According to the company, Klook Live! is designed to cater to the region’s growing demand for online video content on mobile devices. It refers to a study by digital research brand eMarketer, that over 1.2 billion Asia-Pacific users consume video content on their mobile devices in 2019, and that this is expected to increase by over 75% to 1.6 billion by 2023. 

The company also looks to leverage the forecast that video content is expected to be a norm post-pandemic as people consume more video content. According to a study by market research firm Globalwebindex, Gen Z respondents said that they expect their increased levels of consumption of social media, videos, and streaming services to continue even after the outbreak. 

On the merchant side, Klook is confident that the new feature will aid vendors in targeting their audience reach which has proven trickier amid the pandemic. 

“With international travel restrictions in place, merchants require creative platforms to showcase their offerings to local audiences and encourage them to support local businesses that depend on tourism. With Klook Live!, merchants of all sizes can bridge that gap and build stronger connections with local users, boosting brand awareness and sales,” the company said in a press statement.

In the coming weeks, Klook Live! will be rolling out more content and products, including episodic programs to unveil a new local carnival in Taiwan and indoor recreational parks in Malaysia among others

Klook Live! can be accessed by downloading the Klook app on Google Play or the App Store.