Post Covid-19 Travel: Hong Kong-based Unicorn Klook Launches Home, A Portal For Virtual Workshops, Tours & Classes

Hong Kong-based travel booking platform and app Klook has recently launched “Klook Home”, consisting of new home-based experiences. Users on Klook Home can book online workshops, virtual tours and cooking classes as the company adapts to the new travel-free reality in the age of coronavirus. 

Repositioning itself in the coronavirus-stricken travel sector, Klook has launched Klook Home, a home-based experience service offering users over 200 experiences that they can book and enjoy without leaving their front door. The new initiative is now available in 14 markets across Asia-Pacific and Europe. 

All bookings on Klook Home are cashless and contact-free via its online platform or mobile app, a consideration particularly relevant during the pandemic. 

Among some of the experiences include online DIY creative courses, such as tote bag painting or making face mask covers. Once booked, Klook will deliver the materials in a “craft kit” to members’ homes, and join in via a digital workshop. Other online services include fitness classes. 

Klook Home will also offer virtual travel tours, where users can “travel the world from your home”. Called Virtual Interactive Experiences, users can visit some of the world’s famous landmarks, attractions and most popular destinations, as well as connect with other people who have joined the livestreamed tour. 

Some of the online tours planned ahead include the Tropical Cebu Safari in the Philippines on June 20, and the Old Royal Navy College in London, United Kingdom on June 27. 

Klook’s new innovative service is boding well in economies where stay-at-home regulations remain relatively strict, such as Singapore and the Philippines. For other markets where residents can still freely travel domestically, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, Klook can leverage the opportunity to roll out bookings for local weekend activities. 

According to the startup’s search data, 60% of the total searches across the Asia-Pacific and European regions are already related to domestic travel experiences, indicating rising local demand for such services and signaling the direction of the travel sector’s recovery from the pandemic.

It hopes to be able to capture its share of local users in multiple markets as a part of its long-term strategy to cope with the economic downturn. Once coronavirus travel restrictions begin to ease, Klook is betting on having a larger user base to promote its range of intra-regional and overseas travel booking services. 

“Covid-19 has inevitably altered the future of travel, and we must continue to be nimble to capture new opportunities,” said co-founder and COO Eric Gnock Fah. 

“Global travel may be some time away from now, but we are confident to seize every opportunity.”

The move to launch Klook Home comes after months of hardship, which has seen the company streamline its workforce through furloughs and layoffs impacting as much as 20% of its workforce. Klook’s co-founders have also given up their salaries over the crisis, while senior staff have taken pay cuts. 

Earlier this year in April, Hong Kong-based eco scuba diving startup ZuBlu announced a US$1 million seed funding round, suggesting that it isn’t just local tourism that will bounce back during the coronavirus recovery. Investors are placing their bets on sustainable tourism in the long-run, as the pandemic shifts consumer priorities towards meaningful and experience-based services that do not harm the environment. 

For trendspotter Li Edelkoort, coronavirus has served as a wake-up call for mainstream consumers, and there are hopes that once settled, the crisis will bring about a better system for the planet, animals and people. 

All images courtesy of Klook.