Like most online travel startups, GetYourGuide is still reeling from the impact of Covid-19. An aggregator of small travel businesses like museums, cultural attractions, and guided excursions, its value proposition is a curated selection of over 58,000 things to do in 150 countries, accessible via its website and mobile app. Founded in 2009, the Berlin-based unicorn with $650+ million in its coffers was built on the promise of globalization—until that promise was broken.
“It’s no secret. Revenues dropped 95%. We were selling north of 40 million experiences, and doing tens of thousands of bookings every day. Now it’s in the hundreds,” said GetYourGuide’s Chief Operating Officer Tao Tao on a recent Zoom call.
It’s not just Tao Tao. Almost every online travel company (OTA) is currently in survival mode. TripAdvisor, Klook, Expedia, and (in-person) Airbnb Experiences have all watched booking revenues fall off a cliff in March and April, as the pandemic closed international borders, grounded passenger jet planes, and shuttered accommodations around the world.
And yet, innovation persists. As a small, relatively nimble company, GetYourGuide engineers are working quickly to build new tech that can remain relevant in a post-covid world. Their goal is to combat the resurgence of overtourism by providing a solution called “Beat the Crowds.” If it works, the startup-that-could might just make a comeback.
