Travel Southeast Asia with Ease: Grab launches new features and tie-ups to welcome travelers back to the region

Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading superapp, today announced new in-app travel innovations and partnerships to give travelers a safe, seamless and hyperlocal experience as Southeast Asia embraces a travel comeback.

International tourist visits to Southeast Asia saw a 1,706% increase in 2022 compared to the previous year. Grab has also seen a steady rebound in traveler numbers, with rides to and from airports growing 3x between January and December 2022.

"We want to be at the forefront of Southeast Asia’s travel revival, welcoming travelers back to the region with an enhanced Grab experience that is designed to help them travel with ease and peace of mind,” said Russell Cohen, Group Managing Director, Operations, Grab. “No one knows Southeast Asia like we do, and our goal is not only to deliver the safest and most seamless mobility experience but also encourage travelers to explore the richness of Southeast Asia like a local through our superapp offerings.”

Southeast Asians love traveling within the region. Grab data show that 40 percent of international travellers using Grab in the Philippines are from other Southeast Asian countries. The data also show that the top Southeast Asian countries Philippine Grab users prefer going to are Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Outside of Southeast Asia, top source markets for travelers using Grab regionally include North America, Australia, China and South Korea.

Grab’s enhanced travel experience was designed to give all travelers the assurance and confidence to explore their destination by empowering them to plan ahead, get a smooth ride the moment they touch down, and experience their destination like a local.

New app enhancements include:

• Traveller Homepage: Two-thirds of travellers who use Grab, download and register an account with Grab while still in their home country. To help travellers better plan ahead for their trips, the new Traveller Homepage allows overseas travellers to explore a city within the Grab app as if they were at the destination. Available for 33 of the top cities tourists visit in Southeast Asia, users can check out the Grab services present in the city, search and save places of interest such as their accommodation address and landmarks they intend to visit ahead of time, and even explore the food options near their destination.
• The Grab app is also now available in Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages, to deliver a more intuitive experience for travelers from China, Korea and Japan, which are key markets for international tourists visiting Southeast Asia.

Plan ahead with the new Traveller Homepage

Explore Grab in Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages

• [Ready by H2 2023] Translated merchant menus: To help travellers explore the best local flavours around them, Grab is working on translating merchant menus in key cities across Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand into English. Additionally, to serve the wave of returning Chinese travellers, Grab will also provide Chinese menu transitions across key Indonesian cities.
• A revamped Venues experience: For travellers, finding their way through a busy, unfamiliar airport to get to the right pick-up point and their ride can be a daunting experience. With the latest version of Venues, travellers can look at images of each pick-up point prior to selecting the one they want, and get image-based turn-by-turn walking directions to guide them, even before they book their ride. Available at all major airports in Southeast Asia, the Venues feature can also be used at over 4,000 locations such as malls, hotels, office buildings, parks and more across the region, including popular tourist attractions like the Singapore Zoo, the floating market in Pattaya, and the National Monument in Jakarta.

Find your way to your driver easily

• [Ready by H2 2023] A currency converter feature that will automatically display fares in travellers’ preferred local currency so that they don’t have to do manual conversions.

“We’re optimistic that the continued tourism recovery and reopening of China will be positive on the Southeast Asia economy overall, and we believe we have a strong value proposition to benefit from these trends as the regional superapp in Southeast Asia. Travellers spend on average 2x more on transport per day compared to local users. We want to be their platform of choice; their preferred travel companion. We will continue to look for ways to deliver greater value to their travel journeys,” added Cohen.

Access Grab services through apps you’re already familiar with

For travellers who may prefer not to download another app, Grab has also teamed up with some of the world’s most popular apps to provide travellers visiting Southeast Asia with options to access Grab’s ride-hailing services through platforms they already use and are familiar with.

WeChat, AliPay, Ctrip, Kakao T and Booking.com users can access Grab’s ride-hailing services across Southeast Asia through these apps. They’ll be able to select their pick-up and drop-off point, see the full range of vehicle types available locally, with the estimated fare displayed in their home currency. They can also pay via their preferred payment method in those apps.

From Q2 2023, Uber users that open the app while in Southeast Asia, will also see a message directing them to Grab as Uber’s recommended way to travel in the region.

Back to travel with GrabUnlimited

In support of the travel revival, Grab today also announced a new exclusive offer to its GrabUnlimited subscription plan, giving subscribers access to discounted airport rides at 89 airports across Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, GrabUnlimited users can get as much as 15 percent off of their airport ride going to their intended destination. A Filipino GrabUnlimited user can likewise access exclusive airport-ride discounts when traveling in other Southeast Asian countries. Avid Grab users are encouraged to subscribe to GrabUnlimited, which is free on the first month and renews at Php 49 every month thereafter.