The tours and activities sector is hard to crack. The market is fragmented and the millions of providers aren't necessarily sophisticated when it comes to technology.
Enter France-based Generation Voyage which is looking to act as a B2C aggregator of tours and activities and provide prices for consumers.
The startup has launched in France initially but plans to expand further afield later this year.
Here's a clip:
What problem does your business solve?
Generation Voyage is the first fare aggregator for tours and activities. People compare flights and hotels on fare aggregators like Skyscanner or Trivago, but nothing exists yet for activities.
We provide the best things to do in more than 500 destinations and we allow users to find the best prices to book them at the same time. It’s time and money saving.
Names of founders, their management roles, and number of full-time paid staff?
Eric Gerardin, product development and Florian Colas, business development. We are now recruiting two others full-time people in Marketing. Our office is in Montpellier, France.
Funding arrangements?
We haven’t raised funds yet but we plan to do it in early 2018.
Revenue model?
Generation Voyage is completely free for users. Our business is based on commissions, we earn from 10 to 15% of every sale generated on our platform.
Why do you think the pain point you’re solving is painful enough that customers are willing to pay for your solution?
Currently, the data and technologies around tours & activities are too poorly structured and not mature enough to ensure the development of aggregators only based on algorithms. With Generation Voyage, we are building a standard that will make this possible.
People are familiar with using flights and hotels aggregators. But today is not enough, people also want the ability to book any activity or experience before or during their trip.
Now everybody wants a fast track ticket, they want to find a nice local guide. Travelers want to know what are the best things to do everywhere and they want to search and book online.
External validation?
The two founders have four years experience in the travel media industry and often worked in tours & activities business. When we launched our aggregator 1 March 2017, we had already signed up the biggest resellers like GetyourGuide, Musement, Ceetiz, Viator which are interested in getting more customers from us.
We already receive about 30,000 travellers every month for about €300,000 in tickets sold and we have only launched it for the French market so far, so the potential growth is huge.
We are incubated in the Business Innovation Center in Montpellier and are accelerated by NUMA, a worldwide accelerator based in Paris, since 15th of March.
In September, we plan to release an english version along with an app to start our international development.
Tnooz view:
News around the tour and activities sector has been good and bad in recent months.
On the one hand there are still many startups wanting to try their hand at this complex industry and the funding to support that.
The sector also continues to get the attention of the big players.
On the other hand, there have been bad news with the demise of Zerve just under a year ago. More recently, the headlines surrounded Zozi, which was eventually acquired by rival Peek.
The enthusiasm and drive to crack this sector abound but the challenges are still many, with the economics especially, remaining the biggest sticking point for most.