Klook disrupt travel fair concept with mobile-led fest
Klook, a world-leading travel activities and services booking platform, marked its 5th anniversary last month. As one of the fastest-growing companies in the travel industry, Klook has achieved numerous milestones while connecting travelers with local operators. Find out more about Klook Singapore travel festival below.
Klook currently offers over 100,000 things-to-do and services in more than 350 destinations through direct partnerships with local operators. Its comprehensive online booking offerings include attraction tickets, tours, local transportation, food and beverage, and unique experiences. Klook has continued its impressive growth over the last year and will surpass 60 million annual trip bookings in 2019. Klook also became the most-searched travel activities and services company globally on Google since October 2018.
Since launching in 2014, Klook has spearheaded Asia-Pacific’s in-destination sector. Today, the company offers localized services in nine languages, supports 41 currencies, and multiple payment methods on its website and award-winning app.
Consumer travel fairs in Singapore are traditionally a marketplace featuring outbound travel agencies and related travel products, as popularised by the long-running NATAS Travel Fair and Travel Revolution: The Event, which are organised by NATAS and Travel Revolution, respectively.
Now, Klook has entered the game with a different kind of travel fair to appeal to the modern breed of travel buyers. The Klook Travel Fest, which concluded in Singapore over October 5 to 6, adopted a flexible “build your own holiday” DIY concept featuring activities, products and services targeted at FITs.
Free entry to Travel Fest via the mobile app
Billed as a “mobile-led” event, the fair showcased tours available on the Klook website and mobile app in eight destination zones, namely, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South-east Asia, Europe, Australia and the US.
Attendees, who had to register for free entry via the mobile app, could pick up activity pamphlets in these zones with QR codes linking to the product pages.
The event also featured flash deals on select products, talks by travel writers and content producers, themed carousel rides and ball pits, as well as booths by Universal Studios Japan, JR West, Korea Tourism Organisation, among others.
“We realised that traditional travel fairs do not cater to the large and growing pool of FITs, who are mobile-centric and extremely digitally savvy. They are moving away from hyper-scheduled days and packaged reservations; they are also using their mobile devices to manage every aspect of their trips,” noted Marcus Yong, regional marketing director, Southeast Asia, Klook.
This fresh concept, added Yong, caters to more diverse segments of consumers who are drawn to community-driven games, educational talks, workshops and mobile-driven deals.
This year, the event made its rounds to Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and drew a total of more than 150,000 attendees. The Manila event registered double the number of bookings compared to its debut edition last year.
