SINGAPORE, 3 October 2022: Travel and experiences platform, Klook reports accelerated 300% quarter-on-quarter cross-border travel growth in the Asia Pacific as it celebrates its eighth anniversary.
Claiming the pandemic is now in the rearview mirror, Klook records a more than 140% yearly increase in searches on the platform. Destinations such as Singapore, Korea, Australia, and Malaysia are recovering strongly, with Klook exceeding its pre-Covid-19 cross-border revenue by 40% for its best-performing markets.
Klook has seen a surge in interest since Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan reopened their doors to tourists, indicating high travel demand. Since Japan’s reopening announcement, the company has seen a 10-fold increase in searches for Japan, with Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore travellers driving this demand.
Rail passes and car rentals are in high demand as travellers plan their main travel routes and transportation options. Revenge travel is in full swing in Japan, with Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Hokkaido and Okinawa being popular searches for cities.
“Aside from exceeding pre-pandemic revenue in many of our markets, our strong 2Q demonstrates the strength of the brand and the industry in which we operate,” said Klook co-founder and chief executive officer Ethan Lin.
Klook is collaborating with tourism boards on multi-faceted partnerships to rebuild travel confidence and accelerate tourism recovery. These collaborations include creating engaging content to rekindle wanderlust, co-curating new experiences to cater to changing consumer behaviours, and creative regional marketing campaigns to encourage consumers to travel again. It has announced partnerships with the Singapore Tourism Board, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Korea Tourism Organization, and Tourism Australia.
“After more than two years of the pandemic, the future of travel looks promising as we seize this opportunity to empower the next generation of travellers and bookable experiences,” said Kook co-founder & chief operating officer Eric Gnock Fah.
To cater to evolving consumer habits and make discovering and booking experiences more seamless, Klook will introduce several platform upgrades.
One is re-engineering the destination discovery feed powered by user-generated content (UGC) from Klook’s repository of over 7 million verified user reviews. Klook will also introduce a new trip feature, which allows users to automatically generate personalised trip itineraries that they can share easily with friends and family.
Klook is partnering with its merchants to introduce prizes and the best travel deals for consumers. The first round of deals came into play on 30 September and remain open for bookings until 14 October. Consumers can participate in activities such as the Klook Joy Roulette, 8 pm Flash Deals and Daily Destination Deals. The Klook Travel Fest is also back in full force, and travellers can expect an extended week of deals and offline events across Southeast Asia featuring fun games, special deals, entertainment and destination booths to inspire consumers to re-discover the joy of travel.
