GetYourGuide and lastminute.com join eu travel tech
GetYourGuide, the leading global online marketplace for unforgettable travel experiences, and lastminute.com, the European leaders in dynamic holiday packages, join eu travel tech as Strategic Partner and Member respectively. The companies will bring new perspective and expertise to the work of the association and join the group’s efforts in supporting EU policymaking in areas including tourism, consumer protection and competition in digital markets.
Since 2009, eu travel tech has given voice to a sector that is rapidly growing and that is empowering consumers to discover and book travel services and experiences that best suit their needs. The travel experiences market alone is projected to reach $463 billion by 2027, according to Euromonitor. Companies like GetYourGuide are an important part of this growing sector, as they serve both consumers looking to find unforgettable experiences, but also local tour operators looking to connect with those customers.
The travel tech industry is striving to ensure greater transparency and competition in the travel and tourism sectors for the benefit of all players. This is especially important in view of the trend showing that travel rebound has begun everywhere. Lasminute.com latest results show a pre-pandemic level of booking for Q1 2023. Travel tech companies, being asset-light and digitally driven, will be crucial to tapping into this return as they have the agility to scale up and down quickly.
“We are excited to welcome GetYourGuide and lastminute.com to this group of like-minded companies,” said Emmanuel Mounier, eu travel tech Secretary General. “Speaking with one voice as an industry is particularly important at a time when key legislation is being discussed or implemented that can truly change the way businesses operate. Our objective is to ensure that the travel tech sector can continue to bring great value to the European economy,” added Mr. Mounier.
“As the global economy and the travel industry continues to recover and evolve after the pandemic, it is critical for both the public and private sector to collaborate to ensure long-term viability and growth,” said Johannes Reck, GetYourGuide CEO and cofounder. “At GetYourGuide, we work with 16,000+ travel businesses, many of which are small and independent operators in Europe, to digitally connect with customers around the world. It is critical we can do that work in a fair and supportive legislative environment,” Mr. Reck said.
“As the European travel-tech leader in dynamic holiday packages, technology is in our DNA and we believe that innovation is a force for good in keeping the travel industry ahead of the curve,” said Luca Concone, CEO of lastminute.com. “As a digital-first business that has helped millions of people make memories on holiday for the last 25 years, we believe we can bring our vast experience to help consumers have the best choice possible when spending their hard-earned money. By working together our shared voice can have an even greater impact than standing alone, and working towards more transparency and competition speaks to our values and is the right thing to do.”
About GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide is the leading global online marketplace for unforgettable travel experiences. Travelers use GetYourGuide to discover and book the best and most unique activities in any destination — including guided tours by local experts, culinary excursions, cooking and craft classes, skip-the-line tickets, as well as exclusive bucket-list experiences.
Following a student trip to Beijing during which the sourcing of a good tour guide to help navigate the city proved challenging, Johannes Reck, Tao Tao, Martin Sieber and Tobias Rein were inspired to found GetYourGuide in 2009. Today, GetYourGuide offers more than 75,000 activities from over 16,000 experience creators. Since launch, travelers from over 150 countries have booked more than 80 million tours, activities and attraction tickets through GetYourGuide.
Powered by a global team of more than 700 travel and tech experts, the company is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and has 17 local offices around the world (including in the UK and USA). To date, GetYourGuide has raised over $883M in funding and has received investment from 35 firms including SoftBank, Spark Capital, Battery, KKR, and Temasek.
About lastminute.com
lastminute.com is the European Travel-Tech leader in dynamic holiday packages. It operates a portfolio of well-known brands such as lastminute.com, Volagratis, Rumbo, weg.de, Bravofly, Jetcost and Hotelscan. Our vision is to design the future of travel & tourism using digital technology as an enabler. We continuously invest in talented people who ensure our offering is closer to the needs of the customers and keep us at the cutting edge of technology evolution. We run our business in 17 languages and 40 countries, with more than 1,500 employees spread across our offices worldwide, developing our own products and services to power the entire traveller journey for millions of people. lastminute.com N.V. is a publicly-traded company listed under the ticker symbol LMN on SIX Swiss Exchange.
