Swiss start-up company Viatu is changing the travel industry by taking out the hard work from booking your next adventure. Viatu does this through its tech-based and comprehensive approach, which saves time and money. Through their completely customizable trip builder, booking is made simple.
Viatu values sustainability, they choose destinations with sound environmental, social and human rights management systems, and avoid destinations where tourism is causing unacceptable social, cultural and ecological harm. The company uses the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s Destination (GSTC-D) criteria to ensure that they provide sustainable destination products.
Viatu also helps users manage the impact of their travels by signing the ‘Viatu Travel Pledge’, that details responsible tourism practices, including cultural and environmental considerations, and how they can leave lasting positive impacts. Viatu also makes climate contributions on their behalf through their integration with Squake, which is a company that provides an end-to-end solution, powering accurate carbon calculations and providing tangible compensation of all travel and logistics related emissions.
The company was founded in 2020 by Alfredo Seidemann, Johan Bodenstein and Bárbara Büchel and is based in Zug, Switzerland. Viatu runs on a mission to promote greener and smarter travel into wilder destinations. They explain over on their website, “over tourism is our nemesis. Instead, we promote sustainable tourism, so that the positive impacts of travel can be felt for generations to come.”
In recent news Viatu has raised $1 million in a seed round. The investment was led by Ndoto with ASI Reisen and a number of angel investors also participating. With a total of $1.2 million, Viatu plans to use this latest funding towards finishing its direct booking system and launching the customer interface.
Viatu says it uses API and data-driven technology to enable travellers to customise trips and book each element of an itinerary on a single platform.
Bárbara Buchel, Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer at Viatu, said, “Viatu aims to transform a process which could take up to two weeks, either individually or through a travel agent, into something that will take minutes. For example, we had a situation where a customer’s flight to Costa Rica had been cancelled, so they ended up planning and rebooking an entirely new two-week trip to Namibia while at the airport using Viatu, and within the hour they were boarding a flight to Windhoek.”
Sources: Viatu, Phocuswire
