London-based website
isango! can help make your holiday more fun, says
Jermey Hazlehurst
The expansion of the internet has had a huge effect on the travel industry, with millions of holidays booked online every year in the UK. Such firms as Lastminute.com, Expedia, eBookers and Travelocity are household names and you'd be hard-pushed to find somebody who hasn't used one.
But those businesses all have something in common: they all deal with hotels and flights. The other element of holiday-what you
actually do once you get to your destination- has largely ignored.
isango!, a London-based start-up founded in 2006 by
Ranjan Singh, aims to change all this. The business offers
travelers a variety of experiences (4,000 in 60 countries at the last count) that you can book online.
Popular ones include a ghost walk in Venice, a six day cowboy training camp in Australia and where you are picked up in Sydney in
moonlight that takes you to a "boutique vineyard" for a day of wine-tasting and then bring you back to the city.
For couples, a combination of dinner at the Eiffel Tower, a cruise on the Seine and a Moulin Rouge show is a
favorite.
isango! is proving such a hit that it has just received investments of £8m, half of which came from Spark Ventures, which was the first
investor in Lastminute.com. isango! will use the money to enter new market, the US, Germany and France.
