Go Zayaan, a newly launched travel-tech company based in Dhaka claims that it has solved the problem for Bangladeshis who want to travel locally or internationally.
In 2014 alone, some 1.5 million Bangladeshis visited abroad, according to Data from the Bangladesh Bank, National Board of Revenue and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. The number is growing every year. In the fiscal year 2016, Bangladeshis spent $436.4 million in outbound travel (Bangladesh Bank provisional data).
This is a consistent trend and according to industry insiders, this will continue in the coming years. Foreigners coming to Bangladesh is equally growing. Research indicates that the number of visitors from abroad may amount to as much as 652,000 within 2025.
Globally, travel is a huge industry. The industry includes everything from travel planning to hotel to airlines. Some of the world’s biggest companies are travel tech companies. Companies like Priceline, that manages everything related to your travel, and Expedia and disruptor like Airbnb make billions of dollars in business every year and growing.
In Bangladesh, the travel agency is an old business. There are companies that manage your travel starting from planning to air ticket to hotel booking to local tour package. In the recent years, we have been seeing a rise in the number of travel tech companies that are trying to disrupt the old brick and mortar model of the travel agency. We have covered a few of these companies over the past months.
Despite that traveling remains a largely unpleasant chore for most people in Bangladesh. Even with today’s on-the-go attitude of the world, going abroad for vacation seems like a troublesome activity from anywhere in Bangladesh.
Go Zayaan, a newly launched travel-tech company based in Dhaka claims that it has solved the problem for Bangladeshis who want to travel locally or internationally. The platform, a travel aggregation platform, aims to become the one-stop online travel solution platform for travelers worldwide. Our ambition is to allow travelers to make their own tour plan instead of relying on some third party, says Ridwan Hafiz, Founder of Go Zayaan and Analyzen.
Currently, it offers flights and hotel booking along with holiday packages. It also claims to bring deals from hotels and airlines for its users. Travelers can pay their air tickets and hotel bookings by using Bangladeshi Taka, escaping the trap of dollar endorsement, credit card, and other limitations and pay via bKash among other options.
The platform says it has already entered into a partnership with booking.com, a Priceline Group company, to ensure better hotel booking services to its users.
