Pikavia is a new travel marketplace with zero commission for tour guides

The travel and tourism industry in Asia is a huge business. It surpasses Europe as the world’s largest regional travel market, according to a report from Phocuswright. Indeed, Asia-Pacific’s travel and tourism market contribute as big as US$2 trillion to the region’s GDP in 2013, and is forecast to rise up to US$3.69 trillion by 2024.

Looking at all that promise, it’s no wonder startups are popping up to take a slice of the action. One of them is Indonesia-based Pikavia, a marketplace for travel tours in the region.

Pikavia’s is similar to Triip.me in Vietnam and BeMyGuest in Singapore, in that it crowdsources tour packages from users worldwide. But what’s different is that Pikavia does not take any commission out of any tours sold on the site.

The startup plans to monetize from tour agents using a freemium pricing structure. Agents can upgrade their account to the pro version which lets them access Pikavia’s analytics tools. With this feature, agents can see data such as Pikavia’s visitor demographics and the most popular keyword searches. Agents can also purchase PikaPoints, which can then be converted to purchase premium features like promoting tour packages on the homepage or making tour packages that stand out more with badges.

Solution to price sensitive travellers

Soft launched in October, Pikavia currently has 386 tour packages – domestic and international – from 227 tour agents. CEO Andika Prasetya started off as a tour agent in early 2014, only to find moving his business online difficult. He explains:

There was no product out there that could handle tour agents’ various needs and the tour agency competition is getting more and more each year. […] So we decided to pivot. We decided to make Pikavia to gather all these tour agents and help them get online to reach the global market and to help travelers find the right tour easily.

When asked how his startup will fare against other, more established marketplaces, Prasetya says he hopes that the price difference can be one of the keys to winning this market. “We take no commission off sales so we can also give travelers lower prices. It’s just like we are taking the commission that tour agents would normally give us, and we give it to the traveler instead,” he says.

The team behind Pikavia

The team plans to launch new features for tour agent verification and a trust system. Currently Pikavia is a seven-man team, with Systec Group’s Wempy Dyocta Koto as chairman.

Indonesia’s TripVisto and Valadoo could be considered competition as they both offer tour packages. However, not many startup travel sites in the archipelago feature crowdsourced packages.