AirAsia Berhad is acquiring a 50% stake in online travel planner Touristly through an asset injection and loan deal valued at RM11.5 million (approx. USD 2.61 million). With this deal, AirAsia Berhad will inject the digital platform of its Travel 3Sixty inflight magazine (valued at RM6.5 million/USD 1.48 million), into Touristly via AirAsia Investments Ltd and extend a RM5 million (USD 1.48 million) convertible loan to Touristly for working capital and development.

The digital platform comprises the online brand for the Travel 3Sixty inflight magazine, touchpoints on airasia.com and online advertising assets, which will allow the startup to reach AirAsia’s 60 million guests annually. Along with this, Touristly will also gain access to offline advertising assets including the physical inflight magazine, overhead bins and seat trays on AirAsia flights.

On completion of the deal, AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes will serve as Chairman of the Board for Touristly. While the startup will gain customers with the reach of AirAsia, the airline will be able to offer a wider array of services and activities such as restaurants, theme parks, attractions, spas and tours at more than 70 destinations that the airline operates to.

Touristly CEO Aaron Sarma said, “​Working with AirAsia has been on our minds since our inception. The insight we can gain from AirAsia’s 15 years in the travel industry will help us better understand the Asia Pacific market and quickly adapt to deliver real value to our customers. Our dream was to help travellers to Asia Pacific find amazing things to do in the region and we’re truly excited about this opportunity to be able to share our platform with more people.”

AirAsia Group CEO Tony ​Fernandes said, “We see enormous potential in Touristly, which perfectly complements AirAsia’s existing travel offering. Our guests will be able to choose from thousands of activities when purchasing a flight and this brings us a step closer to becoming a truly one-stop digital airline.”

Touristly previously raised an undisclosed pre-Series A round from Tune Labs which saw the platform being integrated with several Tune Group companies.

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After winning the Pitch@Palace Malaysia, Malaysian travel startup Touristly has announced today that it has successfully secured a strategic investment from Tune Labs. Touristly was launched in June last year to enable travellers to customize their holiday plans with ease. It offers a wide array of activities for travellers so that they don’t have to search through multiple websites. The trip planner gives travellers the option to curate their holidays by selecting from the deals available on the platform. They can also share their itineraries and book the trip in a single click. The platform features over 7,000 deals spread across 70 destination around Asia Pacific.

L to R-Touristly CEO & Founder, Aaron Sarma and Gareth Lim, Co-Managing Partner of Tune Labs

Tune Labs, the Kuala Lumpur based startup incubator and accelerator, has invested an undisclosed sum towards a pre-series A round.

“We are very excited to be part of the Tune Group family as it complements our services for travellers and tourists. After a traveller books their flights and accommodation, the natural next step is to plan the holiday itinerary itself and this is where we come in,” said Aaron Sarma, founder and CEO of Touristly.

“We currently offer 7,000 deals in over 70 destinations and we will be working to grow our base to shadow AirAsia and AirAsia X’s 120 destinations. This will be in favour of completing the travel experience for anyone who flies with the airline,” he added.

With this association, Touristly is incorporating its platform with several companies in Tune Group such as AirAsia’s Travel 3Sixty, Tune Hotels, Tune Protect and AirAsia BIG. The integration intends to leverage on the large market of on-ground activities and AirAsia’s huge customer base to benefit both Tune Group and Touristly.

“This Tune Labs and Touristly agreement provides a great example of how the Tune Group ecosystem can generate significant synergies with a startup, even at a relatively nascent stage. We look forward to working with Aaron and his team, establishing Touristly as the Asia Pacific traveller’s first port of call when planning and booking travel activities,” stated Arun Verma, Co-Managing Partner of Tune Labs.

“Touristly provides the Tune Group with a neat stepping stone to extend its presence along the travel and hospitality chain. AirAsia travellers, BIG Loyalty members, and Tune Hotels guests will now have easy access to a one-stop platform to plan, book, and purchase holiday activities – at a compelling price point consistent with Tune Group unique selling point – and share their travel experiences throughout Asia,” said Gareth Lim, Co-Managing Partner of Tune Labs.

To kick off this association, Touristly announced a partnership with AirAsia BIG near the end of March earlier this year. The partnership would allow travellers to earn loyalty points giving all the partners the reach to other partners’ consumer base. This was followed by an integration with Tune Hotel to offer on-ground activity concierge services to the travellers.

After emerging as one of the winners at Pitch@Palace Malaysia, Touristly will be heading to Pitch@Palace Global in UK later this year to reach out to global audience.

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