Alva Vanderbilt's 39th birthday present from her husband was a 140,000-square-foot summer "cottage" on the shores of Newport, Rhode Island.
19.08.2024 - 17:52 / skift.com / Jesse ChaseLubitz
Tiqets navigated the pandemic better than some rivals thanks to a strategic investment from Airbnb.
“The company has been profitable since last year, meaning there is less need for funding,” said CEO Laurens Leurink.
Tiqets sells admission to museums and attractions, but with some twists. It specializes in special early morning or late night entries and getting direct exclusive inventory, partly by selling hardware and software to the attractions.
Tiqets says it’s doubling down on global expansion, aiming to bring its curated offerings to more destinations. Leurink spoke with Skift about the company’s growth strategy, including new partnerships and a continued focus on leveraging AI.
Skift: Tiqets has expanded its global reach and formed strategic tie-ups, such as with Sofar Sounds and Klook. What’s the thinking behind these partnerships?
Leurink: We’re very focused on these distributor and affiliate relationships. If you look at activities, we’re seeing some changes in planning. We see that before people decide where to go, they also look at the activity space. I think a lot of our distributed partners are seeing that as well.
Tiqets is focused on having direct contracts with its supply partners. The actual connection to the inventory offered by these supply partners are through different connectivity options: our API, the supplier’s API, the supplier’s reservation system, booking engines, widgets, etc… Tiqets is currently mapped to more than 300,000 operators and suppliers.
We curate by focusing on destination maturity, our audience mix, the wishlist of our key distribution partners, and many other criteria.
So, if you look at the scope of our distribution partners, it runs from big OTAs [online travel agencies] like MakeMyTrip and Expedia, to small travel media, blogs, and writers. We have tools to share our curated inventory with these distributor partners.
We’ve grown the volume from bigger, global, and often API-connected partners like travel companies and OTA’s equally in share with medium-sized and smaller parties like travel media and employee benefits partners that connect us via our affiliation tools like links, booking engines, and widgets. We have always been focused on both segments, but in the past few years, we’ve invested a lot in native technology, helping our distribution partners to monetize the full user trip by giving users access to bundling, packaging, and merchandising offerings. are strongly focused on growing both segments.
Skift: Can you share any plans for partnerships moving forward?
We’re seeing more and more appetite for the travel activity space, which for years has been called the third pillar yet to be dug out and explored. We started a pilot with TripAdvisor a
Alva Vanderbilt's 39th birthday present from her husband was a 140,000-square-foot summer "cottage" on the shores of Newport, Rhode Island.
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