KKday, Asia’s leading travel experiences platform, is committed to promoting the digital transformation of Asian travel merchants with the official launch of “KKday Marketplace” in Southeast Asia.
The move comes as the company expects international tourism to rebound in 2023, following a record-high global revenue in 2022. “KKday Marketplace” is designed to help local merchants develop e-commerce operations and expand the service capacity of international travellers while sharing KKday’s global network traffic.
The first wave of the campaign targets water and outdoor activities operators, offering early bird commission discounts. The goal is to reach 2,000 merchants worldwide in 2023 while expanding cross-border travel opportunities in the post-pandemic era.
The Southeast Asian market is the driving force behind the quick rebound in tourism in Asia, but according to KKday’s local observations in Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, at least 90% of Southeast Asian travel experience merchants have not made the digital transition yet.
On the other hand, more than 85% of travellers who use KKday place orders via mobile devices and are used to digital browsing, online booking, online payment, and instant customer service interaction.
Aiming at digital tourism and contactless service opportunities, after launching the Rezio booking system in 2020, which has served more than 5.1 million travellers worldwide, KKday launched the “KKday Marketplace” service at the end of 2021 to help travel suppliers establish their e-commerce brands.
“KKday Marketplace” features six major advantages, through which merchants can set up their stores quickly, list their products independently, price their products flexibly, control their inventory accurately, respond to orders instantly, and access the KKday platform’s global traffic. At present, “KKday Marketplace” has more than 1,000 merchants globally, including water and outdoor activities operators, cultural experiences providers, and traditional agencies. In anticipation of the post-pandemic boom in the Southeast Asian tourism market, “KKday Marketplace” aims to expand its local presence in this market.
KKday noted that although many small merchants that focus on Southeast Asian travel experiences have survived the pandemic and have established basic digital operations, such as websites and social media platforms, their ability to attract overseas traffic and international travellers is still limited in the wake of the recovery of international travel.
Presently, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese merchants are using KKday Marketplace’s multilingual services to capitalise on the rebounding of cross-border travel. For example, a small local ATV operator in Hualien, Taiwan, MK ATV, has received orders from tourists from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and even Germany and North America after joining “KKday Marketplace,” driving revenue growth of more than 30%.
Similarly, OrengeBus, a Japanese travel agency, has introduced multilingual services and enjoyed overseas traffic after becoming a “KKday Marketplace” merchant, generating 12 million yen in revenue within a month, and its business continues to grow with the arrival of the peak travel season.
The post KKday Marketplace Expands Footprint in Southeast Asia first appeared on CXP – Customer Experience Asia.