Thailand is a popular tourist destination but it’s rapidly turning into a dynamic business spot. It has a low cost of living, offers a variety of food at low rates, provides many co-working spaces and is well connected with 6 International airports with low-cost carriers.

Observing the vast travel market opportunities in Thailand, many travel startups have come into existence in the past few years. We have listed a few of them below:

#1 JetRadar

Founded by Konstantin Kalinov in 2012, JetRadar is a multi-lingual travel search engine for flights, hotels and cars. It helps travellers spend more on stunning experiences and less on airfare prices. As a business, it is associated with 535 airline and 35 travel agencies worldwide. It is active in 14 international markets including Germany, USA and Australia. The speciality of JetRadar is that it has a useful filter called ‘ECO-Rank’. With the help of it, the flights are ranked according to the aviation emissions, traffic forecasts and aircraft range. Travellers who believe in protecting the environment can use this brand for an ecologically friendly flight to their destinations.

Languages: English, Deutsch, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian.

#2 Coin ⇆ Back

Founded by Naoe Miyata and Jasnam Sachathep in 2014, Coin ⇌ Back is a travel brand that is truly one of a kind! The brand has come up with an innovative solution for getting rid of left-over coins and simultaneously making donations. The brand places kiosks in convenient places such as departure halls of the airports, hotels, malls and other public areas. The interested travellers will be requested to insert their coins in the kiosks. After carefully following a 3-step process, they will be able to contribute their money for some noble cause. They will be able to keep a track of their donations through the official website and social media channels. For more details on how to make the donation, click here.

Languages: English

#3 Tourkrub

Founded by Jakapan Leeathiwat, Xinming Zhao and Poomphat Techapoopon in 2013, Tourkrub helps travellers find the best travel packages as per their requirements. It is specially designed for travel agents and tour operators as it is a great marketing and easily manageable tool available at an extremely low-cost. The travellers can do a filter search and book the best deals on this travel platform.

Languages: Thai

#4 Wongnai

Founded by Yod Chinsupakul in 2011, Wongnai is often called as Thailand’s ‘Yelp’. It lists a number of amazing restaurants by categories, locations and markets. Travellers who do not have much idea about the best restaurants of the cities can use its ‘Guide’ category. It is one of the leading food review sites in Thailand with thousands of members.

Languages: Thai

 #5 TakeMeTour

Founded by Taro and Noppon last year, TakeMeTour offers hundreds of one day trips which help you experience the authentic taste of Thailand with locals. It is one of the largest marketplace in Thailand, having around 5125 active local experts associated with them. For the convenience of travellers, reviews and stories are shared on the website that further helps travellers pick the day trips of their choice. For more details, click here.

Languages: English

#6 Tripnii

Founded in 2012, Tripnii is a hotel aggregator that allows travellers to find and book hotels in Thailand at their desired prices. The travellers can easily select what they want and book hotels at best rates without surfing on multiple websites. It has hotels of several popular tourist destinations like Bangkok, Hua Hin and Pattaya listed on the website.

Languages: English, Thai

#7 Ithaka

Founded by Ameya Sahasrabudhe and Rahul Singh in this year, Ithaka aims to be a free personal travel assistant that enables travellers to explore the beauty of Thailand and provides the best advice in real time with the help of the local experts. It serves two groups of travellers: a) The travellers planning a trip to Thailand b) Travellers already in Thailand and looking for expert advice. Currently, it is razor-focused on providing a world-class experience for the country. For more details, read our article here.

Languages: English

Are there any other innovative travel startups that you would like us to feature in our article? Do share with us.

Also Read: Travel sprint: Our pick of Japan’s 10 coolest travel startups

Travel sprint:Our pick of Honk Kong’s 10 coolest travel startups

The post Travel Sprint: Our pick of Thailand’s 7 coolest travel startups appeared first on TravHQ.

With the motive to deliver an independent, holistic and rewarding experience, two entrepreneurs viz Ameya Sahasrabudhe and Rahul Singh started a travel platform Ithaka. It aspires to be a free personal travel assistant that enables travellers to explore the beauty of Thailand and provides the best advice in real time with the help of the local experts.This startup is gradually gaining more prominence in the travel industry and can be the next big influencer in the times to come.

Last week we had a conversation with Ithaka’s co-founder Ameya Sahasrabudhe who shared the vision for his travel startup. Here is Ameya’s Ithaka pitch for our readers.

Who are we?

We are compulsive travellers and graduates of IIT Bombay, out to help everyone experience the joy of independent travel. Ameya, the CEO, is the energetic, walk-into-any-challenge leader, always on the lookout for new opportunities and partnerships to grow Ithaka. Rahul, the CPO, is the calm, unassuming force that powers our product, and his relentless pursuit of good UX drives most of our processes. Apart from the founders, we have an amazing team of four persons that pours its heart into solving the problem of every traveller.

How did it all begin and how we thought of Ithaka?

Rahul and I have been avid travellers and best friends since college, so it was sort of natural that we ended up launching Ithaka together. We were brainstorming ways to make travel simpler, and we realised that every decision in travel (deciding a destination, finding good flights/ hotels, activities to do and so on) boils down to one thing only – verified, actionable information. So we decided to go ahead and launch an on-demand service to help people plan/ execute their trips. The name Ithaka comes from a very inspiring poem we read about chasing your dreams. I must warn you, it might have a very deep impact on you

Who are the users of Ithaka?

At the moment, we only serve Thailand as a destination, and our users are split into 2 groups:

1) The travellers planning a trip to Thailand

2) The travellers already in Thailand and looking for expert advice

We have a large number of Indian users, and the rest of our travellers come from over 30 countries across the world.

The founders of Ithaka – Rahul Singh (L) and Ameya Sahasrabudhe (R)

What is our early traction?

We launched our android app about 2 months ago and iOS a month ago. We have helped over 500 travellers with their trips to Thailand. We’ve covered bachelor trips, honeymoons, family holidays, solo backpacking and friends reunions! We’ve noticed that our users are closely connected to us from the first contact (planning) to the very end of their trip. This is a very encouraging sign for us, as deep engagement is a good indicator of having a product that your users really want.

How are we different from other travel guide assistance apps?

To put it simply, most other travel guide apps out there are a big, expansive buffet, and all these options can get very confusing for someone travelling to a new destination.

Ithaka is an exclusive à la carte service, where we bring you verified, updated travel information and expertise on-demand, through a friendly chat interface. You save time, effort and get a superb plan, stays and experiences all crafted around your exact likes and preferences. For free! I must reiterate here that we do NOT sell package tours. We help you plan an amazing trip for yourself, and are always one chat away from anything you need in-destination.

What are our future plans?

The Thailand – Cambodia – Vietnam – Laos loop is one of the most travelled trails in the world. We keep getting requests from travellers in these countries, and it feels terrible to not be able to help them.

We are currently razor-focused on providing a world class experience for Thailand. We are close, but there are a couple of things remaining to be worked out. Very soon, we will begin work on expanding to the remaining countries, and hope to close off the famed South East Asian loop by the end of 2016.

If you haven’t used the app, download it now on Google Play Store  and iOS Store before embarking on your Thailand trip. Try it out and let us know what is your opinion about it.

The post Meet Ithaka, Free Travel Assistant for Hotels, Flights & Sightseeing in Thailand appeared first on TravHQ.