If you’ve been disappointed with last minute deal sites like Living Social, Groupon, Tippr and Play Hawaii, read on. There’s a new player getting ready to shake things up in Hawaii activities.
Step in Zozi.
This is a name that wasn’t completely familiar to me. I did take notice that since last summer they’ve raised an impressive $10 Million in financing ($7 Million of it just today).
“Experience what this amazing world has to offer. We enable you to easily find and book things to do…” –Zozi
Zozi started in 2009, but has yet to launch it’s first Hawaii location. Honolulu is already placed on their website so you can be sure they’re on the way. They believe (and I concur) that the market is highly lucractive, worth perhaps $60 billion globally.
The highly social (though no mobile app yet) company wants to enable us to find and book experiences, hand-picked by their team of travel and adventure experts. They appear poised for success, with now significant funding and a powerful communication and distribution engine.
The Hawaii Activity Deal Space
In theory Zozi is in the competitive market already occupied by Living Social. Unfortunately, however, Living Social is at the moment more focused on Botox and massage than on more traditional visitor oriented activities. At least that’s what we’re seeing here in Hawaii.
Zozi on the other hand seems intent to be travel activity centric, think “sailing school, kayaking tours, fire-eating lessons.”
Groupon, Tippr and PlayHawaii are also competing in Hawaii’s last minute deal offerings. None of these has yet been able to achieve dominance nor significantly take advantage of the activity space. In fact a quick check for activities on all of these deal sites today only revealed an unlikely $500 last minute massage for two at Groupon. The rest were flowers and Zumba lessons, which may not be what most visitors think of on a Hawaii vacation.
What are your tips for purchasing activities? We’ve mentioned checking directly with the vendor’s website for deals. If you’ve found other ways to score activity deals, be sure to let us know.
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Alex C. says
Thanks for the info. Living Social/Groupon, et al haven’t really taken grasp in Hawaii as much as in the mainland. Looking forward to seeing what others can do.
Susan says
I agree…there is nothing of real interest to tourists on any of the current sites. Who wants to go on vacation to Boot Kamp or have botox. ?
The one time I tried to book something on Living Social they told me they were not set up to accept Canadian orders.
Looking forward to a new player and something I can use on my next trip in August.