Malaysia-headquartered AirAsia, the budget airline carrier, has acquired a 50% stake in travel planning startup Touristly through an asset injection and loan deal valued at RM11.5 million. The digital platform encompasses the online brand for the Travel 3Sixty in-flight magazine, touchpoints on airasia.com and online advertising assets which will enable the startup to reach AirAsia’s 60 million guests annually.
This deal will witness AirAsia Berhad inject the digital platform of its Travel 3Sixty in-flight magazine, valued at RM6.5 million, into Touristly via AirAsia Investments Ltd and extending the startup a RM5 million convertible loan for working capital and development. Additionally, post the completion, AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes will serve as Chairman of the Board for Touristly.
What’s interesting to note is the fact, that Tony is not collaborating with the online travel service for the first time. Earlier in May 2016, Touristly secured an undisclosed pre-Series A round from Tune Group startup incubator Tune Labs, which is headed by him along with Datuk Kamarudin Meranun and Lim Kian Onn. In an official release, he stated,
We see enormous potential in Touristly, which perfectly complements AirAsia’s existing travel offering. Our guests will be able to choose from thousands of activities when purchasing a flight and this brings us a step closer to becoming a truly one-stop digital airline.
The move will boost AirAsia’s ancillary portfolio by offering its guests on-ground activities such as restaurants, theme parks, attractions, spas and tours at over 70 destinations that the airline operates to. While, Touristly will leverage an access to offline advertising assets, including the physical version of the in-flight magazine, overhead cabins and seat trays on AirAsia aircraft.
Launched in 2015, Touristly is an online trip planner that allows travelers to customize their holidays with ease. It rids you of the process of visiting several websites and apps to avail the best deal by providing a one-stop shop for travelers looking for on-location activities. Touristly CEO Aaron Sarma said,
Working with AirAsia has been on our minds since our inception. The insight we can gain from AirAsia’s 15 years in the travel industry will help us better understand the Asia Pacific market and quickly adapt to deliver real value to our customers. Our dream was to help travelers to Asia Pacific find amazing things to do in the region and we’re truly excited about this opportunity to be able to share our platform with more people.
The travel startup currently features over 13,000 deals on tours, attractions, theme parks, activities, spas and restaurants in 70 destinations around Asia Pacific, with more to be added soon.
