GetYourGuide is a travel experience booking platform founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 2009. In 2012, the OTA moved its headquarters to Berlin and expanded its business mainly in the European and US markets, while also moving towards global expansion with an eye on the Asian market. Seeing Japan as one of the highly potential markets for them, they organized supplier event in Tokyo and Kyoto in October 2024. What does GetYourGuide think about the travel experience market in Japan and around the world? Travel Voice spoke to Johannes Reck, co-founders&CEO, and Tao Tao, co-founders &COO.
Japan is a sunrising market
“Our current business scale is more than four times what it was in 2019,” said Reck. After two difficult years, GetYourGuide first focused on rebuilding its main markets in Europe and the United States, and then began expanding its business in Asia as part of its global expansion. Of these, the market that the company is paying the most attention to is Japan.
"Japan is the number one travel destination on our platform. Compared to before COVID, the number of travelers to Japan has increased fivefold,” Reck said. “Japan will continue to have great business opportunities.”
What GetYourGuide is focusing on to expand business in Japan is ‘authentic Japanese experiences.” There are more users who travel to regional areas from Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto, and in line with that, Get Your Guide is also focusing on publishing experience content in other regions.
In addition, Reck revealed that GetYourGuide has recently increased sales not only of tickets or day tours but also of over-night tours because Japan is a destination where you can enjoy a variety of experiences, including food, culture, hot springs, and nature.
Partnership with suppliers is key
Tao pointed out over-tourism as one of the challenges in local experience market. “"People are concentrating in certain places,“ he said. “Even in Tokyo, we would like to promote decentralization by introducing experiences that are different from the usual staples.”
Tao further stressed the need for decentralization, saying, "Tokyo's attractions are constantly evolving. The Robot Restaurant that was a hot topic a few years ago is no longer there. There are many small-scale operators in a destination, and offering diverse experiences will help support them financially. For example, offering a Japanese dance experience will also help preserve Japanese culture.”
An important initiative for the local experience booking platform is building relationships with suppliers. Reck said, "This is both the most important and difficult point.” Tao said, “"It is quite possible that the experiences that are popular now will no longer exist in five years,”
Tao added, ”Get Your Guide supports businesses that lack business knowledge in how to add value and provide better services.”
(左から)共同設立者兼CEOのレック氏、日本オフィス代表の仁科貴生氏、共同設立者兼COOのタオ氏
Investment to innovation
Tao stressed, "GetYourGuide has been investing in machine learning and AI for over five years. In the past two years, the solutions have expanded even further." Currently, the company has 30 to 40 staff members involved in data science, with more than half of them in the technology industry.
As the company aims to globalize its business, AI is helping evolve customer service, including semantic search that leads to personalization, as well as multilingualization, real-time translation, chat, and auto-response.
For suppliers, the OTA supports the standardization and improvement of content, and for the internal operations. the OTAy is also working to improve business efficiency by introducing AI.
It is true that many competitors are also injecting a lot of money into technology development, and the local experience market seems to be a battleground.
Reck, however, said, “"I don't think it's a competition like tennis or soccer, where one side wins and the other loses,”
The global local experience market size is between $250 billion and $300 billion, of which the total OTAs handle only $20 billion to $30 billion per year. For both GetYourGuide and suppliers, there is a lot of room for growth, Reck said.
