Klook cofounder Ethan Lin thinks the U.S. can help grow one of Asia’s largest travel platforms

Both were also third-culture kids. Fah grew up in Mauritius, the small Indian Ocean nation whose economy relies almost entirely on tourism. Lin, in contrast, lived in several cities as a child before starting college in the U.S. He links his love of travel to his background: “Experiencing local culture, understanding how the world puts together different markets, traveling a lot with my parents.”

Lin’s Nepal trip was a bit of a disaster, in his telling. “We noticed that payment, language, content, infrastructure, and discoverability were not there,” he tells Fortune. “It took us so long to find out what we could do—canyoning, white-water rafting and paragliding—and it was a lot of effort to plan.”

Then a close call pushed Lin and Fah to quit their jobs. As they were about to fly back from Pokhara to Kathmandu, they learned the flight that had left an hour before them had crashed. Later, on Linkedin, Lin wrote that the incident “pushed Eric and I to quit investment banking … and get to work.”

They then hired Bernie Xiong, a Chinese software engineer, to be Klook’s chief technology officer and third co-founder. The company released its first mobile app in mid-2015. Klook grew rapidly across Asia, thanks to a demographic Lin calls “FITs”: foreign independent travelers, who plan their own itineraries instead of booking a fixed-route group tour. Klook achieved unicorn status in 2018. 

Now, Klook is setting its sights beyond Asia. Eighty percent of the platform’s customers are currently based in the Asia-Pacific region. Yet according to Ethan Lin, Klook’s cofounder and CEO, Western travelers account for a growing share of users. Klook’s gross transaction volume from users outside of Asia has risen 13.4% over the past three years.

“The U.S. is actually one of our largest markets, especially as Americans are taking a growing interest in APAC destinations, where we have a strong supply of offerings,” Lin says. “For our users from the West Coast of the U.S., for example, their top outbound destination is Asia.”

Klook filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange last November, hoping to raise between $300 million and $500 million. A month later, Klook announced that it was pushing the IPO to “early 2026”, citing weak debuts from peers like Navan, an AI-powered corporate travel and expense management platform. 

The platform has yet to announce updated listing plans. Both Lin and Klook declined to comment on the potential listing. 

According to a November filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Klook lost $141.5 million on $407.4 million of revenue in the first nine months of 2025. Klook still holds less than 1% of the global experiences market, and faces stiff competition from larger players like Viator, GetYourGuide, and Booking.com.

Targeting young travelers

Over eighty percent of millennials and Gen-Zs—Klook’s target demographic—prioritize unique, authentic experiences over popular tourist attractions, according to American Express’s 2026 global travel trends report.

“Baby boomers are the ones retiring with lots of money, who’ll pay $100 to $200 for private tours,” Lin says. “Millennials and Gen Z favor options which are more value for money, like day activities and group tours.”

Though travel by older consumers is a growing market, Lin says Klook’s central focus remains Gen Z and millennial travelers. “If we can only do one thing well, I want to make sure the millennials and Gen Z are well-covered,” he says. “Once they see that our offerings have good value and service, they will continue growing with us.”

Through its Travel Pulse survey, Klook found that most tourists, especially the young, rely heavily on social media to plan their travels. “You do a paragliding trip once, then you’ll recommend it to a friend,” he says. Almost 60 percent of all travelers now use social media to discover less-visited or lesser-known destinations, with 79% of millennial and Gen Z respondents citing visual-first platforms like TikTok and Instagram as their primary source of travel inspiration.

“Nowadays, most people travel not because they want to stay at a hotel, but because of specific activities they want to do in a location,” Lin explains. “They may want to do a Hyrox in Seoul, watch a Taylor Swift concert in Singapore, or go on a road trip and visit the aquarium in Okinawa.”

Klook has leaned into this trend, launching a creator program in 2023. It’s since brought on over 30,000 ‘Kreators’ across 88 markets. In 2024, it launched the ‘Kreatorverse’, a travel summit for content creators. “We’ll bring together creators at a single destination to create content, meet different partners, and have a fun time together,” Lin says. “It also helps us to boost our brand.”

Shifting travel trends

Asians are traveling more. According to a 2025 report by Visa, outbound travelers from the APAC region grew by 32% from 2023 to 2024. The trend continued into 2025, with outbound travel from the region growing by another 25% year over year in the first quarter.

“If you look at Asia ten years ago, most people were focused on luxury products, like Gucci bags and supercars,” Dimitrios Buhalis, a tourism professor from England’s Bournemouth University, tells Fortune. “But after the COVID pandemic, many people realized that traveling gives them a different perspective on life, while improving their quality of life.”

Populous nations like India and mainland China—both of which house a growing middle class—are increasingly sources of outbound travelers. “In the past, Indian families would save money for the future generation,” Buhalis quips. “Increasingly, their kids are not as interested in saving money but want to experience life, so they travel instead.”

Asian travelers are also traveling to more far-flung destinations. “APAC has been a growing engine for U.S. and Europe destinations,” Lin says, adding that more tourists from the West are also traveling to Asian destinations.

Within Asia, tourism is growing beyond the usual hubs in countries like Japan, where more travelers are flying into Hiroshima (30% growth year over year), Towada (+34% growth) and Omachi (+34% growth), according to Klook data. In South Korea, travelers are also venturing beyond Seoul: Bookings for Jeju and Busan on Klook’s platform surged over 50% in the first half of 2026.

China, too, has emerged as an exporter of cultural and tourism products. “For a long time, China was importing expertise—they were keen to bring in established hotel brands like Marriott and Intercontinental,” explains Buhalis. “But now, they’re developing their own local brands, and are gradually starting to expand and export them.”

AI and technology

Klook is trying to tap AI to enhance the user experience for both travelers and merchants. It’s currently building an AI shopping agent for consumers, and a co-pilot for merchants. Both AI tools are set to go live in the third quarter of this year.

Other travel booking platforms are dealing with concerns that users might be able to use AI to bypass their services entirely, tapping AI agents to book flights and hotels, build itineraries, and read reviews. Both Tripadvisor and Booking Holdings shares are down over 20% over the past year.

Yet Lin thinks AI can enhance Klook’s core business proposition. “AI will boost our productivity, so we’ll have more leisure time,” he concludes. “Experiences will continue to be at the core of human life—we’re the ones who experience the world, and that’s not something AI can ever replace.”

When he’s asked where he sees the business going over the next decade, Lin declines to give a firm answer. “I haven’t done too much forward thinking. I get caught up in execution,” he says. “Right now, it’s day one. We’re back to day one.”

In Fortune’s “Asia Agenda” column, released twice a month, we speak with Asia’s top business leaders about how they are building for the future and the lessons they’ve drawn from leading companies in one of the world’s fastest growing and most dynamic regions. Explore all of our profiles here.