From Sunset Camel Rides to Scuba Diving: How Thrillark is changing traditional tourism in the Middle East

Just over 14 years ago, Fazil Parakkat held a job at a small travel company in Dubai. He would buy tickets from the market and deliver them to customers going door-to-door.

Now, he is at the helm of Thrillark, an online in-destination booking platform for tours, activities, and local experiences.

“I understood the vision of the UAE government, especially the Dubai government. They are tapping the tourism industry here, and we wanted to streamline the process,” Fazil says.

Thrillark connects customers with local tour operators—through which it offers curated local experiences, services, and attraction tickets. Fazil, along with his relatives Firoz Musthafa and Babu Parakkat, has been offering these travel-related services since 2017.

The travel industry in the Middle East has changed over the last few years. As it stands, the Middle East tourism market is valued at $246 billion, according to Future Market Insights.

Tourism in the region has blossomed particularly with the help of digitisation and a push from the government into the sector. This pivot to digital was not without its challenges. “In 2019, we served 30,000 orders, and including the backend processes, we did everything manually. So the pain point was to get to automation,” says Faizal.

Today, Thrillark covers most requirements from aerial sightseeing to transportation.

Thrillark’s advantage

A key selling point for Thrillark is its curated experiences. These comprise activities like sunset camel ride experience at the Agafay Rocky Desert, iFly Dubai—indoor skydiving experience, S Jet ski—Jumeirah Beach, and Scuba diving in Abu Dhabi—national aquarium, among others.

“People select a particular experience and they are automatically notified of the supplies. We further connect with them,” says Fazil.

Users can avail Thrillark’s services in Dubai, Turkey, Oman, and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East.

Getting tour operators onboard was an obstacle, says Fazil. “The first challenge we faced was educating the tour operators. Most of them were working on spreadsheets. They did not even have proper insurance,” he says.

To help convince them to join hands with Thrillark, it illustrated the benefits of streamlining their processes online. This convincing did take some time, recalls Fazil. “It took us one year to do so. We chased them continuously,” he said.

Eventually, it was able to gain the confidence of tour operators. Today, it works with tour operators like Nakhell, Priohub, Miral and Ain Dubai, and charges a 20%-25% commission from these operators.

Along the way, it has also achieved significant automation. The support team of Thrillark, which had 10 individuals in 2019, now has only two.

The scope of online travel market

The overall e-travel market of the GCC region is projected to grow by 20% during the period 2019-23, according to MENA Research Partners.

In this growing market, Thrillark is competing with the likes of Holidayme, Musafir, and Wego, among others.

What’s next for Thrillark?

With only eight members, the platform has served over 1,84,000 guests. In the next five years, the founders plan to make Thrillark a market leader in the MENA region.

“We want to go to the global market as well,” Fazil says. While Thrillark is bootstrapped, it is actively looking for funding and investor connects.