The Internet has helped travel become accessible to more people today than ever before. Yet, while more people can now travel with ease, with great deals for flights and hotels, planning the holiday itself remains a tedious process. Would-be travellers spend hours searching the Internet for the best things to do and then hours more trying to book them. Thankfully, now there’s Touristly — The place to plan and book amazing travel itineraries for your next holiday.
Planning the perfect trip to Asia (and Australia)
Touristly (www.touristly.com) is a platform where travellers create amazing holidays in minutes. Using Touristly you can discover curated restaurants, spas, tours and attractions at destinations in Asia and Australia and schedule them in a personalised trip itinerary. Touristly aims to meet the need of travellers who often book flights and hotels ahead of time to take advantage of price deals, but are then left with trying to figure out what to do once they are on location.
A central feature on Touristly is its trip planner that allows travellers to organize their holiday in their own customised trip itinerary by taking advantage of the thousands of curated experiences available on the platform. Touristly’s trip planner serves as a personal concierge that gives travellers the power to effectively become their own travel agent and create unique itineraries that they can book immediately on the platform.
“We developed Touristly when we saw how travellers struggled with planning their trip because they had to look through multiple websites and apps for travel ideas then try to book them at the best rates possible. This makes the whole exercise both time-consuming and confusing. At Touristly, we hope to make it easier for travellers to plan a great trip with amazing curated deals they can schedule and purchase right away,” explained Aaron Sarma, founder and CEO of Touristly.
Touristly features a curated selection of things to do in over 35 destinations in Asia and Australia and aims to be the go-to travel website for travellers who are planning a trip to Asia Pacific. It currently features over 3,000 experiences at the best prices for travellers to add to their trip itineraries. The company aims to continue adding more destinations and experiences to serve more visitors who are travelling inbound to Asia Pacific.
Create amazing itineraries and book instantly
Using Touristly is simple. Anyone who wants to plan their holiday simply signs up to be a member and starts the process by clicking ‘Create A Trip.’ Touristly will then send them to their trip itinerary creator to discover the best things to do on their trip and schedule these activities and experiences ‘by easily adding them to their itinerary.’ Once done, all travellers need to do is hit ‘Checkout’ to book the entire itinerary in one click. What used to take hours to do now takes just a few minutes.
Touristly’s trip planner calculates your total price based on the dates you’ve chosen and the age and number of travellers who are going on the trip. Bookings are made immediately and all you need to do is print your certificates and enjoy your vacation. Touristly also allows travellers to export a beautiful itinerary of the trip they’ve created in print form. “The magic really is under the hood. Our itinerary creator makes planning a trip seamless by doing all the work for you,” Aaron elaborates.
For those who might need inspiration, Touristly also features trips created by other members. Travellers can view other trips, copy and personalise them to create their own original adventure. The inquisitive traveller can browse through hundreds of trips already on the platform to get inspiration for trips to each destination.
Investment from Netrove Ventures Group
In December 2014, Touristly secured an investment from Netrove Ventures Group, a regional investment and advisory firm with offices in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Guangzhou, Bangkok and Hanoi. The investment is testament to Touristly being in the right space and on the right track.
“We believe there is a great opportunity in the fast growing travel and leisure space, and there are not many players offering unique destination deals in Asia as yet. As more Asians travel, signs of the growing middle class in this region, there is a clear demand for destination deals from these travellers,” commented Teh Kim Seng, Netrove Ventures Chairman.
Touristly has done a great job in understanding this need and has developed a robust platform to serve these travellers. In its current platform, it already has accumulated over 3,000 deals and this will grow rapidly as we ramp up the operational team. We are very excited with what we have planned together with Touristly in making an impact in this space,” explained Kim Seng.
“We are thrilled to have Netrove on board with us to help bring this vision to life. It was very important to us to have investors who not on only share our vision but could also bring years of experience building companies in the region and Netrove Ventures Group certainly fits the bill. Kim Seng and his team have relevant expertise that we believe is integral to our growth as a company,” said Aaron.
Asia as a growing inbound travel market
Touristly aims to serve key markets in Asia and Australia and be the definitive trip planner for the region. It currently features over 3,000 deals at more than 35 top destinations in the region and will expand to more destinations by the end of the year.
Tourism is still growing all over the world. In 2013, according to UNTWO there were nearly one billion tourists, 700 million of whom used the web to make bookings. After spending on flights and accommodation, the market for on-ground activities is estimated at $800 billion worldwide. The same report also highlights that Asia and the Pacific have the highest growth of 6% in arrivals compared to other regions in the world with 248 million arrivals in 2013 alone.
(Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102727989, 2 June 2015)
