#4 Flexibility and versatility
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Accommodating the new travel landscape
2020 was certainly a tough year for many, particularly for the travel and tourism sector. The impact brought on by the pandemic saw many shut their doors for good as hope for a rebound seemed faraway.
However, for Tixcarte, the pandemic created a vacuum in the sector and further accelerated what TixCarte has always advocated. The need to improve on legacy and manual methods in distributing attractions and activities tickets.
Following this, the startup took the opportunity to further increase the acquisition of merchants and partners, all to be prepared for the inevitable travel rebound.
“At Tixcarte we have always been advocating and pushing towards introducing flexible and friendly policies regarding activity and attractions tickets booking. The management of cancellations, re-booking and issuance of credit has become a major area of concern especially during the pandemic.
Over the months, we saw the need to strategically partner with key businesses who also shared the same outlook and vision for the industry,” Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Parthiven Shan told Head’s Up.
Shan and his team saw industry players pivot, revamp their businesses to survive in a rather challenging 2020. The pandemic according to him offered a unique opportunity to build the travel industry back better and for investors to benefit from the regrowth.
“It has spurred us on to be more agile, more creative and more inventive than before, and there have been plenty of lessons learned along the way. We will be advocating the need to automate processes and ensure a lot of the key tasks can be done remotely,” he said.
With news of the February-slated vaccine arrival looming around, the startup founder says it is welcoming to the industry. “The pandemic is unprecedented in many ways, but we have seen strong travel rebounds post-pandemic before with the likes of SARS and MERS.”
Shan is also optimistic local travel rebound will show strong growth as there were obvious signs of pent-up demand that could see it reflecting this year.
As for this year, Shan tells Head’s Up the startup’s plans are based on a backdrop that all stakeholders in the travel ecosystem play a part in bringing back confidence to travelers who are-imagining holidays to rethinking how to travel.
He highlights the importance for industry players to introduce flexibility in ticketing policies to accommodate for the new travel landscape.
“We have also strengthened our relationship with our strategic partners and merchants by introducing key features that we believe will shape the future of activity ticketing distribution,” he highlights.
Pre-Covid saw TixCarte revenue double for three consecutive quarters and the startup secured several key strategic partners to become one of their sales distribution channels. TixCarte was also one of the 10 selected companies of ScaleUp Malaysia’s for their inaugural cohort.
This year will continue to see TixCarte scale up operations and acquisition of merchants in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand to become the largest attractions and activity ticketing distributor.
Staying Versatile
The idea of AFA was founded by a group of school mates that engage in regular badminton sessions together. During one of their weekly badminton game, a friend of the group highlighted the hassle of booking venues especially during peak-hour booking periods.
The above scenario happens too frequently not just to our own social group. But to many other sports enthusiasts like Raymond and his friends for different sports be it Futsal or even Basketball.
Being able to see the problems from both a Sports Venue management point of view as well as a user’s, this prompted the idea to set up AFA. Raymond wanted to shorten booking processes and make venues availability easily accessible by those who love sports.
Head’s Up speaks to Raymond H’ng, CEO of AthletesForAthletes (AFA) on the lessons learnt in 2020 and how he and his team are prepared to take on the new year.
1. The pandemic in 2020 has certainly caused major tectonic shifts in the ecosystem, how were you impacted and how did you brace through these unprecedented times?
As a small tech-startup, we are highly reliant on how market waves/trend to set our course. The market adaptation towards online spending and thanks to the e-wallet market war (which helps users to adapt into E-Wallet & Online payment), getting users to use AFA mobile app for sports venue booking was rather intuitive.
AFA launched during the pandemic, we are moving towards our 5th month going online. It has been a tough journey trying to get our market validation since most sports were not allowed to operate for commercial use.
2. What were some of the key takeaways for your startup in getting through the challenges?
We set short-term goals when the future was filled with uncertainties, and we decided to always stay versatile. Don’t expect things to go 100% as planned especially during this time and day.
However, despite all the odds, our team managed to get 37+ venues to register using our system and as of today we have almost 2,000 users’ signup on the AFA app.
3. The news of the arrival of the vaccine is optimistic, what are your sentiments on 2021?
I believe most people share similar sentiments on what’s currently happening in the world. I tend to look at things on the bright side and always believe there’s definitely light towards the end of the tunnel.
Regardless the situation, the fact that the whole world is facing this pandemic together, gratifies me.
4. How will you apply the lessons learnt in 2020 for your direction in 2021?
This pandemic has set up our team’s mentality in bracing challenges. I’m glad that we started during this pandemic, growing up in a tough environment will make us stronger. At least, that’s how I look at it. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?
Most importantly, we must all stay versatile at all times. Setting a goal is important, but having the ability to stay versatile on our methods of approach is equally important.
5. What more can the Government do for SMEs and Startups?
We need more incentives, grants and guidelines on how SMEs can apply for it. It is important because most SMEs do not know where they can get help when needed. And not just financially, but also mentorship and business opportunities.
6. What are some of the considerations that have gone into your 2021 plans?
We are keeping close watch on when the vaccines will be out and also the latest KBS regulations on sports venues operations SOP.
7. Can you share a list of your achievements in 2020 and what do you hope to achieve in 2021?
We established a commercial partnership with the National Sports Institute (Institut Sukan Negara) and got awarded the management rights of Sports Digital Transformation Centre Kuala Lumpur’s indoor badminton centre.
The launching of AFA’s auto lighting solution as a proof of technical concept.