Klook and Visa Partner Across Six Southeast Asian Markets to Support the Rise of Experience-Led Travel

SINGAPORE, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Klook, a leading pan-regional experiences platform in Asia Pacific, and Visa, a world leader in digital payments, today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) across six Southeast Asian markets to support the growing shift towards experience-led travel. Across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, the partnership combines Klook's experiences ecosystem with Visa's payments network to support joint creator programmes, cardholder offers, in-destination brand presence and Klook joining as a partner for Visa's iconic travel platform - Visa Destinations.

Experiences are increasingly shaping where travellers go

Both Visa's 2026 Global Travel Intentions study and Klook Travel Pulse 2026 show that travel demand across Southeast Asia has held firm despite global headwinds. The findings also point to a rising trend of experience-led approach to travel planning:

• Visa's 2026 Global Travel Intentions study found that 37% of Asia Pacific respondents plan trips around unique local experiences, above the global average of 29%.
• Klook's Travel Pulse 2026 found that experiences are influencing travellers' choice of destination. More than half of Asia-Pacific travellers no longer begin their planning with a fixed destination, while 23% start with a specific activity and choose where to go based on that experience.

As travellers' starting point shifts from where-to-go to what-to-do, both companies are seeing experiences account for a growing share of Southeast Asian travellers' trip budgets.

Given this insight, Klook will be supporting the launch of Visa across Southeast Asia through joint marketing and promotional initiatives, including Klook offers made available through Visa Destinations channels.

Creator-led social content is giving travellers the confidence to book

Social media remains a major source of travel inspiration. As AI-generated social media content becomes commonplace, real-life creator content is becoming even more valuable. Seeing a creator visit a destination or take part in an activity helps travellers trust that what they see is grounded in reality, giving them greater confidence to book the experience themselves.

That is why Klook and Visa will establish a shared creator framework across Southeast Asia under the MoU. With more than 30,000 creators across 88 markets, the Klook Kreator Programme is a global community of travel creators that places Klook at the forefront of social commerce in travel. Through the partnership, affiliate links from Visa creators will be hosted on Kreator Shops, Klook's freshly revamped creator storefronts launched in August 2026.

Gladys Chan, Head of Marketing, Regional Southeast Asia, Visa, said, "Travel is a major force shaping Southeast Asia's cultures and economies. At Visa, we believe everyone can be the traveller they want to be, and that journey begins long before payment. Our collaboration with Klook combines Visa's trusted payments network with a creator community that inspires travellers to act. Together, we look forward to bringing Visa Destinations to more travellers across Southeast Asia and connecting cardholders with the experiences they value most."

Sarah Wan, General Manager for Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, Klook, said: "Across our markets, travellers are increasingly deciding what to do before where to go, with creators shaping those choices. The Klook Kreator Programme brings inspiration and booking together, allowing travellers to act on recommendations immediately. Partnering with Visa extends this journey into payments and rewards, while giving creators across the region more value to offer the audiences who trust them."                                     

About Visa

Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, sellers, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at www.visa.com.sg

About Klook

Klook is a leading pan-regional experiences platform in Asia Pacific, purpose built to digitalize experiences and make them accessible to every traveler. Our mission is to build the digital infrastructure for the global experience economy — empowering merchants to share their passions and travelers to discover the heartbeat of each destination. We operate a mobile-first, curated platform featuring diverse experiences across global destinations.

 

** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **

Klook and Visa Partner Across Six Southeast Asian Markets to Support the Rise of Experience-Led Travel

The MoE Model Matches Cloud Models 10x Its Size in Everyday Cockpit Tasks

HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Banma Intelligence Group introduced AutoOmni 2.0-23B-A3B, an omni-modal on-device LLM, at the Apsara Conference. Built on a mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture, the model delivers routine-task performance comparable to that of 230B-parameter cloud models in intelligent cockpit scenarios. For complex tasks, it achieves 90% of the performance of similarly sized cloud models.

"Compatible with most mainstream high-performance automotive SoC platforms, our 23B on-device model supports stable concurrent execution of more than eight multitasking streams and accelerates large-model inference by five to six times," said Dr. Si Luo, chief technology officer of Banma Intelligence. He added that on-device models are opening a new interaction paradigm—a native intelligence era—for automobiles and other AI-powered devices.

Since its debut at the 2025 Apsara Conference, AutoOmni has been adopted by more than 60% of automakers integrating on-device AI into their products. This year, Banma Intelligence showcased an enhanced solution that combines the on-device model with a cloud-integrated agent architecture. The model seamlessly handled complex scenarios involving voice commands with ambiguous intent and cross-domain tasks, orchestrating multi-stop navigation, vehicle control, and infotainment operations with low latency and robust privacy safeguards.

The premium all-terrain vehicle FREELANDER 8—co-developed by Chery and Jaguar Land Rover—was also on display at Banma's booth as the world's first production vehicle to feature AutoOmni on Qualcomm's Snapdragon Cockpit Elite (SA8397P) platform. The booth also featured SAIC's MG Cyberster and BYD's DENZA Z9GT, the latter featuring a cloud-based agent solution that allows users to place food-delivery orders and book hotels via voice commands. These demonstrations drew executives and technology leaders from automakers including BMW and Volkswagen, as well as chipmakers such as Qualcomm and NVIDIA.

About Banma Intelligence Group

Banma Intelligence Group is a leading global provider of smart cockpit technology, focused on transforming vehicles into AI companions through its proprietary operating system, its full-stack, end-to-end Yan AI model family, and its vehicle-based services marketplace. Banma's evolving product portfolio—including the on-device omni-model AutoOmni and the superagent solution AutoClaw—delivers an in-car experience with proactive intelligence and hands-free task execution.

** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **

Banma Intelligence Unveils AutoOmni 2.0, 23B On-Device Omni-Model

Banma Intelligence Unveils AutoOmni 2.0, 23B On-Device Omni-Model