yana

Travel Startups Incubator (TSI) is pleased to announce Yana Trip as its newest portfolio company. The innovative adventure travel startup Yana Trip offers personalized online tour and activities scheduling to the growing number of fully independent Korean travelers eager to pursue adventures around the world.

Yeun-ah, Sonny, Matt going over the financials in Orlando, Florida.

Yeun-ah, Sunny and Matt going over the financials in Orlando, Florida.

Founded in April 2015 and based in Seoul, South Korea, Yana Trip is led by CEO Yeun-ah Cho. Cho, who named her company after the English pronunciation of her name, states that the acronym YANA also stands for “You Are Not Alone.” A former backpacker, Cho recalls how lonely it felt to prepare to go on a backpacking trip all on her own.

“With Yana Trip, I wanted to show people that they are not alone when they are traveling,” she says.

Cho’s startup will cater initially to Koreans who travel throughout the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia and want to supplement their trips with bookable outdoor activities. Featured global tour providers on Yana Trip offer everything from paragliding and skydiving, to scuba diving, surfing, biking, and even bungee jumping. Other options include sightseeing tours, snorkeling, cruising, fishing and snow tours.

Travelers can schedule tours and other activities in the cities they plan to visit through the mobile-friendly Yana Trip online portal.

Yana Trip has contracted directly with more than 1,500 activity tour providers around the world including such brands as Grayline, Big Bus Tour, Cirque du Soleil, and London Helicopter. Earlier this year, Yana Trip was certified, as a creative tourism venture company by the Korea Tourism Organization a highly sought designation within Korea.

“We focus on giving our customers what they want,” Cho says, “personalized travel services that can be scheduled easily and quickly online.”

According to Matt Zito, Managing Partner at Travel Startups Incubator, “We had dialog with the Yana Trip team for 4-months prior to meeting one-on-one in Orlando, Florida. We were impressed by Yeun-ah Cho’s work ethic and her ability to on-board over 1,000 tour suppliers around the world in such a short time. Yana Trip is generating revenue and is growing at a fast pace. We are excited to be working with them to help gain new business and potential distribution through our business development and platform services.

Southeast Asia travel is growing fast and we believe there is a great opportunity for Yana Trip to be one of the leaders in the tours and activities space in this market. The biggest obstacle for TSI in working with Yana Trip so far has been the language barrier, but we’ve been overcoming it through Skype video and Sunny, a team member that helps translate Korean-to-English. Working with Yana Trip is a testament to our commitment to invest in the best teams and ideas on a global basis. We couldn’t be more excited.”