The venture, launched in July 2022, has secured £1.5 million from “angel” and corporate investors, including Zip World, with its founders injecting another £600,000.
The digital platform enables searching and booking of days out and attractions, experiences, activities, theatres and events. The platform also offers small businesses digitised ticket sales.
Lovetovisit, which describes itself as the “Uber Eats for the UK tourism and leisure industry” aims to raise further funds as it expands into the UAE in the first half of 2023 and the US by the end of this year, targeting visitors to both countries and domestic audiences. It forecasts 10 million monthly users by the end of 2023.
Sales have reached £170,000 a month, with a target of £500,000 a month by the end of this summer.
Lovetovisit is the brainchild of Fed Pereira and twins Georgia and Alice Aubrey, who met at tourism marketing agency Pear Media, which Pereira established. The Aubrey twins were awarded the One to Watch accolade in the John Hays Entrepreneur of the Year category at the The Travel Industry Awards by TTG in September.
Georgia Aubrey, partnerships director, said: “We are really proud that LoveToVisit has the largest inventory of days out and ’things to do’ in the UK and we’re asked about supplying it to the travel trade a lot.
“Our success though comes from being incredibly consumer focused, giving the consumer what they want, and this gives us point of difference. But demand from the travel trade is there, so it is definitely in our plans to explore how we can work with the travel trade in the future.”
Lovetovisit.com chief executive Fed Pereira said the brand already had the largest bookable inventory of ‘things to do’ in the UK. “Now with Zip World’s investment we can continue our growth and maximise opportunity in the £24 billon UK consumer market,” he said. “Ultimately it will lead to an increase of bookings across the industry, exposing audiences to more ‘things to do’ inspiration than ever before.”
Sean Taylor, Zip World founder and president, added: “The partnership is a clear statement from Zip World Group about how we see the future of domestic tourism and the importance of tech innovation and strong digital content.”
