I remember many years back, if I wanted to reserve a seat to watch a movie at the cinema, I’d have to look at the newspaper to find out screening times and then call the cinema number to make a reservation. Few years later, cinema apps came along and I used them to make a booking and get a reservation number to redeem it at the counter.
Now, there’s no need to even go to the counter thanks to the QR code and QR code scanning machine at the cinema entrance.
The ticketing industry is revolutionising, not just for the cinema, but also the way we reserve seats in restaurants, concerts, travel, and other kinds of entertainment. We’d never imagine that the way we book tickets would have evolved to this point over time—and it still is.
GoTicket is another Malaysia-based startup that wants to join the evolution of the ticketing industry.
GoTicket is a platform that focuses on selling tickets for leading attractions in Southeast Asia. The website was launched last year with a purpose to provide online tickets from major attractions and destinations with the lowest prices. The simple modus operandi for the team at GoTicket is to look for new attractions and then negotiate with the management to get the best deals for their users.
There is already a list of destinations that are listed on the site. Currently they have got some destinations for Malaysia and only 1 for Singapore, which is the Universal Studios. In the menu bar, attractions are listed according to several categories, such as edutainement parks, theme parks, water parks, zoos, and more.
Clicking on each image brings you to the details of that destination and if you are satisfied with your selection, you can click on the ‘Buy Now’ icon to look at the ticket prices.
Moreover GoTicket also claims that their tickets are free from hidden charges and are more affordable than the attractions’ gate price. Simply put, you no longer need to queue at the entrance of an attraction venue because you would have already gotten a ticket from GoTicket—at a lower price.
Is It Really Cheaper?
To test out what GoTicket has claimed, I went to their website as well as Legoland’s website to compare the prices.
Above is the original ticket prices as stated in the Legoland website. And below is the prices provided by GoTicket.
The adult and child ticket prices has been decreased by 20%. And there are lower prices for the theme park and water park as well.
Discount addicts will know that group-buying sites like Groupon and Milkadeal offer even cheaper prices, sometimes discounts up to 40% on certain attractions. However, one thing to note is that those deals are not listed on the group-buying sites every month. Those deals come and go and the prices or discounts will vary.
Other than that, discounts on group-buying sites for attractions are only valid for a certain period, for example 4-5 months from the date of purchasing the voucher.
Verdict: 3.5/5
For people who do not want to wait for the deals that they are eyeing at to appear on group-buying sites, they can just access GoTicket to get a cheaper price immediately. The team at GoTicket should, however, work on increasing the number of attractions listed. Although with their current few listings, I am already pleasantly surprised that I got to know of some attractions that I’ve not known about, such as the upside down house in Malacca.
The payment system is user friendly as it supports the local payment system as well PayPal, which is a plus point because the platform will appeal to foreigners who do not have a local bank account.
The website’s interface certainly needs to be improved. The colour and theme should exuberant more vibrance, since travelling is after all a lively activity filled with enthusiasm. With some minor improvements and added attractions for more variety, GoTicket could be a big hit among local and foreign travellers. The team could also consider developing an app so that users could buy cheaper tickers on-the-go; although I’m not sure if the attractions would be pleased or annoyed by that.
