“We are looking for tour operators who can work with American clients, to partner in South-east Asia. The key considerations to join our network are to have in-country operations, have experience selling to American clients as we need them to interface directly with the clients,” said founder Brian Tan.

Founded about two and a half years ago by 47-year-old Tan when he could find “no good way to find good reliable agents for authentic trips”,Zicasso recently announced a comprehensive sales and marketing solution aimed at travel agents and retail tour operators who focus on selling luxury custom tours. 

“We have been working for the last couple of years to refine our product and now we are ready with a robust system,” said Tan.

The new system gives its travel agent partners a web-based client relationship management application which manages the entire sales workflow – from the traveller’s profile to trip request, email communications, itineraries, sales status as well as alerts to follow up. Customisable response templates are also provided. Travel agents can search, monitor and track client communications with automatic reminders for follow up. 

The new solution also provides a set of best practices for selling custom tours and its staff will coach partners based on real-time observations throughout the sales cycle. 

Zicasso is a referral system that partners with some 150 retail agents who are “knowledgable experts” and who can create complex trips for luxury travelers who value their time, and whose average spend on a tour booking, minus air fares, is US$8,000. 

Zicasso attracts luxury travelers to its site which presents them an interactive way of sourcing for a customized travel itinerary that will result in an “authentic travel experience”, explained Tan. Using matching engines, leads are matched with suitable tour operators who then communicate with the potential customer via email or phone calls to fulfill the request. 

Potential customers will have a chance to state what they activities looking for, the services they need, dates of travel, what their budgets are. They can also put in additional comments about their requests – whether it be a less strenuous itinerary, particular types of foods, etc. 

In its young life, Zicasso has already been selected as one of the “Best Travel Websites of 2010” by Travel + Leisure magazine. It has also been featured in Wall Street Journal and New York Times in the US. 

Working out of the Silicon Valley, the team of 10 has mostly technology backgrounds but are “passionate travellers”. The privately-held company is “cash-flow positive” and not in a hurry to raise additional funding, although Tan admits that he is “looking at different opportunities that will come up”. 

“Eventually, being part of a bigger company would be ideal. It would make sense to do that, but not at this point. As a small, independent operation, we are able to work in a fast mode. Maybe in a few years, we will consider it,” said Tan.

 Featured image credit (What to pack for an adventure): Ockra/iStock