Thai domestic OTA to partner with TakeMeTour and expand overseas

Thailand’s Beacon Venture Capital, a subsidiary of Kasikorn Bank, has invested US$25m in Traveligo, a Thailand domestic OTA founded in 2015 by Anupong Kriangkrailipikorn, and which will be rebranded to Gother.

The news, announced at the first K Travel Tech Summit, organised by the Korea Tourism Organisation and held in conjunction with WiT Seoul today (November 1), will see the domestic OTA expand its services overseas, enabling Thai travellers to buy travel in destinations outside Thailand. Currently, its business is purely domestic – Thai travellers travelling within their own country.

As part of its rebranding and expansion, Traveligo will partner with TakeMeTour, an online marketplace for tours and activities in Thailand. Co-founder and CEO Taro Amornched, who founded TakeMeTour also in 2015, said this was a significant moment for Thailand’s travel startup scene and would provide fuel for other Thai travel startups.

For Anupong, it’s a major milestone for his startup which was established with US$1m funding from his family. Asked during the panel at K Travel Tech Summit if his family was happy with him, he laughed and said, “We are very excited about this next phase of growth.”

He said that TakeMeTour’s partnership was also critical for this next phase of growth.

Taro added that with that 99% of TakeMeTour’s customers coming from overseas to enjoy Thailand experiences, the two companies made a good fit in both customers and product. “By adding tours and activities to Gother platform, we can make it more exciting,” said Taro, “and inspire travellers beyond flights and hotels.”

Traveligo founder, Anupong (left), says the partnership with TakeMeTour is critical to the expansion. “By adding tours and activities to Gother platform, we can make it more exciting and inspire travellers beyond flights and hotels”, said TakeMeTour co-founder and CEO, Taro Amornched during the panel at K Travel Tech Summit in Seoul.

Anupong said the bank group’s investment would also mean access to the 20m users of the bank’s lifestyle superapp, K Plus.

For initial expansion, Anupong has identified Korea, Japan and Singapore as its first markets.

The timing is also right for expansion given the tourism recovery in Thailand, in both inbound and outbound. Taro said Thailand’s inbound tourism was about two-thirds recovered, with markets such as Korea, India and Singapore leading the way. China, accounting for 30% of arrivals pre-pandemic, is still lagging.

Taro said that Koreans travelling to Thailand were being influenced by Thai dramas and were visiting eating spots made popular in those series. In the same way, Anupong said Thais travelling to South Korea were similarly influenced by K-drama and both are optimistic that this two-way traffic would augur well for Gother’s future expansion into South Korea.

As for a possible merger between TakeMeTour and Gother, both did not discount the option. So watch this space.