ChinaTravelNews – Outbound DIY travel booking service Aoliday announced it raised RMB10 million (approx.: US$1.6 million) in its Series A financing from Gobi Partners. The funds will be used to enhance service in Aoliday’s existing destinations and develop new destinations.
The O2O travel booking website established in 2013 offers bookings for overseas independent activity products. Its app version went online late last year and its website currently lists 3,000 products such as attractions passes, boating, diving, scenic fights, bungee jumping, local tours, local cuisine or packages of accommodation, activities and dining in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Southeast Asia and the USA.
Aoliday hopes to expand its product range this year to include more than 10,000 products covering also destinations in Europe.
“The difference between Aoliday and other travel platforms is that we offer 100% DIY packaging options for users and leverage local business for procurement ensuring customized products,” Aoliday CEO Jianyu He said. “The biggest advantage of directly dealing with local suppliers is that we can bypass middlemen and wholesalers thus offering a high degree of personalization, better control of product quality and more tailored ancillary services.”
Gobi partner Tao Jiang believed that consumer demand in the largely untapped market spurred innovation in the travel industry in 2014 that released a flood of new products and developed market niches. “We have an extremely positive outlook for the development of overseas destinations services, which Aoliday excels in, and we believe that Aoliday’s excellent implementation will enable it to do well in 2015.”(Translation by David)
