Tainan City Government and world-leading travel platform Klook officially kicked off bilateral collaborations on March 5 with a MOU signed by Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-che and Klook's head of marketing in Taiwan Sam Lin. Klook will assist Tainan tourism businesses to launch at least 100 Tainan tourism products by the end of June. Mayor Huang thanked Klook for incorporating Tainan into the global digital tourism map and expressed that the collaboration will expand Tainan's tourism market and bring local tourism to the next level.
The Mayor explained that this MOU is a chance for Tainan’s travel industry and hotel operators to optimize and digitalize their business operations. The Klook platform is an ideal channel for domestic and international travelers to learn more about tourist hotspots and tour packages in Tainan. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the travel industry, Huang reminded related businesses that they can use this downtime to work on improving itineraries and tour packages, training employees, and operation digitalization; then after the epidemic passes, they will be ready to welcome more visitors.
Klook Co-founder Ethan Lin expressed that Taiwan has always been an important market to Klook. Last year the platform launched a project to expand their investments in Taiwan: they will put in NTD two billion in three years for additional talent recruitment, partnership reinforcement, and domestic tourism market optimization so that more people can experience the beauty of Taiwan. Tainan was selected as the first partner city for its tourism potential, and most importantly, Tainan City Government and Klook share similar ideas in promoting Tainan's tourism spots. Both parties are very passionate about the subject and consider it a mission to be accomplished.
Sam Lin further explained that Klook provides free digital tools to support local tourism businesses in digital transformation, product launching, and marketing campaigns. The goal is to launch 100 Tainan tourism products by the end of June. Starting with domestic visitors, Klook will gradually expand its target market to overseas travelers in Asia and other countries. The platform plans to share information related to Tainan's delicacies and activities to more people through events, digital content, and campaigns, such as O2O promotions, Tainan travel tips, social media posts, and secret attraction reveals.
Tainan City Government Tourism Bureau pointed out that in recent years, over 80% of travelers set their own itineraries. Nowadays, travelers seek customized in-depth experiences and tend to complete their travel transactions online, therefore online travel platforms have become a popular channel for people to book their trips. Klook is a world-leading travel experience platform with 14 different language selections that offers over 400 travel destinations and 100,000 travel products and packages. The platform has 30 million visits every month and over 5 million user comments. Klook has 29 offices around the globe and an international userbase, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US. With this strong tourism partner, Tainan City Tourism Bureau will actively assist in matching local businesses, help Klook develop local tourism products, and continue to expand domestic and international tourism markets for Tainan.