Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank subsidiary, Beacon Venture Capital, has invested $25 million for a majority stake in Traveligo, a Thailand domestic online travel agency founded in 2015 by Anupong Kriangkrailipikorn and which will be rebranded to Gother.
The announcement was made at the first K Travel Tech Summit organized by the Korea Tourism Organization on Wednesday in conjunction WiT Seoul. This will allow the domestic online agency to expand its service overseas, enabling Thai tourists to buy travel outside Thailand. Currently, its business is purely domestic – Thai travelers traveling 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. Taro Amornched is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Traveligo, who founded TakeMeTour in 2015. He said this was a momentous occasion for Thailand’s travel startups and would give fuel to other Thai travel companies.
Anupong considers it a major milestone in the development of his startup, which he founded with $1 million from his family. He laughed when asked if his family liked him during a panel at the K Travel Tech Summit.
“We are very happy about this new phase of growth.”
He said TakeMeTour’s partner was also crucial for this new phase of growth. Taro noted that TakeMeTour has 99% of its customers from abroad, who come to Thailand to experience the country’s experiences. The two companies are a perfect match for both their customers and products. Taro said that by adding tours and activities to Gother’s platform, they can make it more exciting and inspire travelers beyond flights, hotels, and hotels.
Anupong said that the bank’s investment will also give access to 20 million users of K Plus, the bank lifestyle super app. Anupong’s initial expansion will focus on Korea, Japan, and Singapore.
The timing for expansion is also right, given the recovery of tourism in Thailand – both inbound as well as outbound. Taro stated that Thailand’s tourism inbound was about two thirds recovered. Markets such as Korea and India were leading the way. China, which accounted 30% of arrivals prior to the pandemic is still behind.
Taro said Koreans were traveling to Thailand and visiting popular eating places from Thai dramas. Anupong, a Thai who travels to South Korea, said that they are also influenced by K drama. Both are hopeful that this two-way flow of traffic will bode well for Gother’s future expansion in South Korea.
