TixCarte sets sights as largest B2B ticketing engine in Southeast Asia

• 100 more corporate partners and 4,500 merchants to support growth
• 5 million attractions and activities tickets projected to be sold by 2025

TixCarte, a Malaysian B2B ticketing distribution platform, aims to be Southeast Asia’s largest ticketing engine by 2025, with 5 million attractions and activities tickets to be sold by then.

By expanding its merchant database to 4,500 and doubling its corporate partners to 100 this year, the company expects to book at least US$4.039 million (RM18 million) in revenue in 2023, more than double the previous year.

The company said it is optimistic about tapping into the multi-billion-dollar ticketing industry given strong momentum in digital adoption by travellers and merchants alike, the opening of the Chinese borders, and greater preparedness in the target sectors in handling health requirements. Given these key driving factors, TixCarte is confident in gaining a 10 times increase in bookings for travel, hospitality and entertainment sectors by 2025.

“We are reactivating our runway with partners from China whom we have been in discussions with before the lockdowns. In the immediate future, TixCarte is focused on expanding across the region especially into Thailand and Indonesia to canvas more corporate partners and merchants,” said Parthiven Shan (pic), CEO and founder of TixCarte.

TixCarte is a ticketing distribution platform that allows corporate partners, merchants and customers to sell and buy attraction tickets via an easy-to-use, flexible and integrated system. It is supported by the Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation (MRANTI) under its Global Market Fit (GMP) programme to expand its market reach and penetration.

With TixCarte, customers get instant ticket confirmations, QR code tickets sent on mobile, and a fully refundable feature with 0% cancellation fees. It also provides additional benefits such as “No Lock-In” for bookings made through the TixCarteGo platform, so customers can confidently purchase their attraction and experience packages with peace of mind.

Meanwhile, for corporate partners, Parthiven says that “Managing resellers will be at their fingertips, with the sales tools allowing corporates to manage their resellers account access, giving them the ability to start selling on multiple sales channels.”

Its suite of current corporate partners includes Air Asia, and Malindo as well as global platforms such as KKday, WeChat Pay, Boost, Tiqets and others. Having recently signed on with Sunway as a corporate partner, Parthiven is looking to secure the likes of more hospitality providers such as Berjaya, Shangri-la, Malaysia Airlines and others. 
 
 

Expanded benefits for merchant partners
“While digital solutions are rife, many merchants in the travel and hospitality sector still struggle with integration for flexible payment options, and have not latched on to the benefits eTicketing offers,” said Parthiven.

TixCarte addresses this, and several legacy pain points including manual processes and offline ticketing, rigid cancellation policy, high cost of bulk buying, multiple B2B attraction ticketing systems, or platforms that have no standard B2B ticketing in the attractions segment.

“Our approach is to enable them to digitalise easily, and to set up to monetise quickly,” said Parthiven.

TixCarte claimed that Wet World Shah Alam, a water theme park increased sales by 15,000 tickets in a year by working with it as TixCarte helped publish their offers to a list of corporate partners.

“Meanwhile, in supporting smaller medium-scale operators which are often run by a family team and suffer from a lack of creative assets and content such as images, and videos, TixCarte will be assisting to develop and promote their offerings to reach wider audience groups via social media,” he said.

According to TripAdvisor, properties with at least one photo see more than a 100% increase in engagement and are more than 200% more likely to receive a booking inquiry.

Trends on ticketing and travel trips
On key customer shifts coming through the pandemic, Parthiven shared that the volume of Malaysians buying experiences through online retail platforms such as Shoppee, Grab, and others has grown, opening up a new channel for merchants.

In a survey conducted by GlobalData last June, 39% of consumers said they would typically book directly for their travels and experiences. Moreover, according to another published research by Skift, 56% of independent hotel bookings came from direct channels in 2020, up from 39% a year earlier.