Touristly secures Tune backing

KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian travel startup, Touristly, announced Monday that it has successfully secured investment from Tune Labs, a Kuala Lumpur -based incubator and accelerator headed by Tony Fernandes, Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, and Lim Kian Onn.

Touristly is currently aligning its platform with several companies in Tune Group, such as AirAsia’s Travel 3Sixty, Tune Hotels, Tune Protect, and AirAsia BIG, that will add content to travel planners and consumers.

“After a traveller books flights and accommodation, the natural next step is to plan the holiday itinerary itself and this is where we come in,” said Touristly founder and CEO, Aaron Sarma.

(L-R) Touristly CEO & Founder, Aaron Sarma and Gareth Lim, Co-Managing Partner of Tune Labs.

“We currently offer 7,000 deals in over 70 destinations and we will be working to grow our base to shadow AirAsia and AirAsia X’s 120 destinations.”

“This will be in favour of completing the travel experience for anyone who flies with the airline,” he added.

According to the UNWTO, travellers spend 40% of their travel budget on ground activities, which amounts to about USD860 billion and Asia alone represents a market opportunity of at least USD100 billion.

Annually, AirAsia flies 55 million passengers across the region and this gives the airline an opportunity to earn ancillary revenue through partnerships like the one with Touristly.

“We look forward to working with Aaron and his team, establishing Touristly as the Asia Pacific traveller’s first port of call when planning and booking travel activities,” stated, Tune Labs co-managing partner Arun Verma.

“Touristly provides the Tune Group with a neat stepping stone to extend its presence along the travel and hospitality chain.

AirAsia travellers, BIG Loyalty members, and Tune Hotels guests will now have easy access to a one-stop platform to plan, book, and purchase holiday activities — at a price point consistent with Tune Group so called ‘unique selling point’ — and share their travel experiences throughout Asia,  Tune Labs co-managing partner, Gareth Lim, explained.

Touristly integrated with AirAsia BIG loyalty, last March. It allows members to earn AirAsia BIG Points when they use the travel platform to create and book their holiday itineraries, followed by an integration with Tune Hotels, providing on-ground activity concierge services.

Launched in June 2015, Touristly is a platform that enables travellers to customise holidays and eliminate the process of searching through various websites and apps for the best deals. It features over 7,000 deals on tours, attractions, activities, spas and restaurants in 70 destinations around Asia Pacific and will be adding more destinations and tours later this year. The platform is currently working to integrate services with the airlines, hotels, travel loyalty programs and travel agencies in the travel-booking path.