Tourplus hires ex-Agoda country director to drive growth

• Chan Huan Gee to focus on business development and merchant acquisition
• Appointed solution provider to deliver BSN-MDEC SME Digitilisation Grant

Tourplus Technology Sdn Bhd (Tourplus), a Malaysian travel startup today announced a key hire to help propel its new business segment. In a strategic move as one of the key driving factors for growth, Chan Huan Gee (pic above) has been hired as the Chief Operations Officer to ensure business development and merchant acquisition for Tourplus hits the revenue target in 2021. 

A veteran in the online travel industry, Chan’s career included roles as Agoda Malaysia’s Country Director for almost nine years, where he also served as the Senior Advisor for the Japanese market. A seasoned player in the travel tech space, he also spent two years as the Chief Visionary Officer for GOEureka, a travel tech company utilising blockchain technology that builds hotel booking platforms.

CEO & founder of Tourplus Rickson Goh (pic) said, “Chan brings 17 years of tourism and hospitality sector knowledge traversing across both international and local market experiences with him. We believe he will help the company in growing our presence in both the local and ASEAN markets. With his expertise, we are delighted to welcome him to lead the strategic role for our business development and merchant acquisition team.”

“I am excited to be onboard Tourplus and look forward to ensuring business continuity in 2021 and beyond, especially as we tread in unprecedented times. On top of that, Covid-19 has accelerated the need for digitisation and we hope to remain active in this new norm,” says Chan.

With travel tech becoming an influential part of the tourism industry, transforming the travel marketplace, Chan is looking forward to actively taking Tourplus into a more prominent role in the travel tech space with the team, while optimistic on meeting growth targets.

Chan joins Tourplus in the wake of the startup’s appointment as a Technology Solution Provider for the BSN-MDEC Technology Grant programme that looks into propelling Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) into the digital world. Tourplus was appointed under MDEC’s supervision to assist SMEs adopt digitalisation in their daily operations.

The Government has identified seven key digitalisation areas that should be adopted by SMEs that include electronic point of sale, electronic payroll system, customer relationship management, digital marketing, enterprise resource planning and accounting and tax services.

To date, Tourplus has helped various Malaysian SMEs in guiding them through the application to the grant programs specifically in digital solutions such as web development, Social Media Marketing and online distribution channels.

“The initiative entitles eligible SMEs to a 50% matching grant of up to RM5,000 and limited to 100,000 SMEs.  We understand the challenges that SMEs are facing when going through a full digitisation programme and our bundled digital solutions come in a variety of packages for them to choose with easy implementation,” said Rickson.

One such beneficiary of the grant programme has been Cindy Seow (pic, right), Managing Director of GIT Tour & Travel Sdn Bhd. Appreciative of the government, she says, "Without the solutions and support from Tourplus, we would not have been able to effectively transform our digitalisation effort to increase revenue and widen market access. In these hard times, it is one of the ways to stay afloat and build the business."