Close to 98.19 million Chinese traveled abroad in 2013, and that number is set to be even higher once data for 2014 is published. It means that travel booking is a hotly contested space among China tech giants and fledgling startups. Today, one of those newer sites, Aoliday, revealed that it has secured US$1.5 million in seed financing from Gobi Partners.
Aoliday does things differently from most of the other travel and ticket booking sites by focusing on selling daytrips, tours, and adventurous experiences around the world. Those could be pricey items like a two-day guided adventure of Yosemite National Park in the snow, or something more affordable like a quick trip to Australia’s Churchill Island to see the penguins. There are also entire package tours for tourists who’d rather not plan things out themselves.
James He (pictured above), the founder and CEO of the startup, tells Tech in Asia that over 30,000 tourists bought trips on Aoliday in 2014, which is four times higher than the 2013 tally.
He came to the idea for the site when he was working in the travel industry in Australia in 2010. “During this time, I realized that outbound independent travel would be a major trend for China in the future and something seriously missing from China’s market at the time. I felt that this would be a great entrepreneurial opportunity for me. In the beginning, it was a part-time effort for me; utilizing my free time while I juggled a full-time job. Back then, it was not even a website – just a QQ group that I had created to help Chinese tourists interested in Australia to share some advice, help them get tickets in advance. This really proved to me of the potential for this market segment and what would later become Aoliday,” he explains.
The founder did market research and found that lots of factors were coming together that suddenly made it a lot easier for Chinese people to travel more freely, rather than in the regimented tour groups that march behind a man with a flag and a loudspeaker. Things like more relaxed visa policies around the world for Chinese tourists, rising wage levels in China, and younger travelers wanting to explore by themselves – they all suggested to He that the travel industry was changing fast.
A few years later, He was ready to turn this into a web business. “In 2013, I returned to my hometown of Chengdu and officially established the Aoliday office in China to build upon the momentum we had created in Australia.”
The end result is a little bit like the curated trips phenomenon we’ve seen emerge recently in which startup sites create a marketplace for travelers to pick local experiences, often using local guides – like with Bemyguest or Withlocals. But most of those don’t serve the Chinese-speaking market.
Aoliday, however, doesn’t have this niche all to itself in China. Major sites like Qunar, Ctrip, and JD Travel have also spotted that Chinese tourists want more authentic local experiences whilst overseas and have started to sell an array of daytrips, adventures, and package tours. Amidst all that, Aoliday’s founder hopes the new site can stand out by focusing only on its speciality and by providing more offline support for travelers when they arrive.
See: Top 10 Asian travel startups that crowdsource tours from local guides
This post Aoliday sells trips to China’s adventurous global tourists, gets $1.5M seed funding appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Aoliday sells trips to China’s adventurous global tourists, gets $1.5M seed funding
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