Turismocity
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Travel technology |
| Founded 📆 | 2014 |
| Founder 👔 | Andrés Malenky Julián Gurfinkiel Eugenio Fage Martín Levy |
Area served 🗺️ | Latin America; United States; Canada; Europe (via FareCompare) |
| Products 📟 | Metasearch engine (flights, hotels, packages, travel insurance) |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | www |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Turismocity is an Argentine travel technology company that operates a metasearch engine for flights, hotels, vacation packages, and travel insurance. Founded in 2014 in Buenos Aires, it aggregates offers from airlines, hotels, and online travel agencies across Latin America and redirects users to providers' own websites to complete purchases.[1][2]
The company expanded internationally through two acquisitions: Dallas-based FareCompare in December 2020 and Brazilian platform Quanto Custa Viajar in September 2021. It completed its first external funding round—US$6 million—alongside the second acquisition.[3][4]
Background: Latin American online travel market
Latin America's online travel market expanded significantly during the 2010s, driven by rising internet penetration, smartphone adoption, and the growth of low-cost carriers. Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina represent the region's largest individual travel markets.
Within this environment, metasearch engines—platforms that compare prices from multiple sources without directly processing bookings—became an important category, positioned between direct airline and hotel booking sites and full-service online travel agencies (OTAs). The dominant regional OTA, Despegar (known as Decolar in Brazil), operates in the same broad category through a direct-booking model. Globally, Kayak, Skyscanner, and Google Flights occupy the metasearch space; Turismocity positioned itself as a Spanish- and Portuguese-language alternative for Latin American travelers.
History
Founding (2014)
Turismocity was founded in 2014 by Andrés Malenky, Julián Gurfinkiel, Eugenio Fage, and Martín Levy in Buenos Aires. The platform launched as a search engine aggregating flight, hotel, package, and travel insurance offers from multiple providers simultaneously, enabling price comparison without requiring users to visit each provider individually.[2]
The company operated without external investment for its first several years, growing organically in Argentina before expanding into Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Peru.[1]
Acquisition of FareCompare (2020)
In December 2020, Turismocity acquired FareCompare, a Dallas-based flight price comparison website. FareCompare had been founded in 2006 by Rick Seaney and Graeme Wallace, entering the North American metasearch market at the same time as Kayak, SideStep, and other early platforms. Seaney and Wallace departed FareCompare in 2016 to establish travel data service 3Victors.[3]
PhocusWire, an international trade publication covering the travel technology industry, described the deal as Turismocity acquiring one of the established names of the early-2000s U.S. metasearch sector. FareCompare had recorded more than 50 million visitors in 2019. The acquisition extended Turismocity's reach beyond Latin America to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, and other markets where FareCompare had an existing user base.[3]
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Turismocity stated its intention to maintain FareCompare's brand and domain while integrating its own real-time fare alert technology into the platform.[3]
Funding round and acquisition of Quanto Custa Viajar (2021)
In September 2021, Turismocity raised US$6 million in its first external funding round. Investors included Eduardo Elsztain, chairman and chief executive of IRSA and Cresud; Martín Migoya, co-founder and chief executive of Globant; Francisco Álvarez-Demalde, co-founder and managing partner of Riverwood Capital; and Pablo Saubidet, co-founder of Argentine internet providers Iplan and Fibertel.[4][5]
Concurrently, Turismocity acquired Quanto Custa Viajar, a Brazil-based digital trip-planning and travel cost comparison tool. The acquisition expanded Turismocity's Portuguese-language operations in Brazil, the largest travel market in Latin America.[4]
Following the two acquisitions, Turismocity stated ambitions to become one of the world's leading travel companies and indicated plans for further acquisitions in travel and technology.[4]
Business model
Turismocity functions as a metasearch aggregator: it does not sell travel products or process transactions, but collects and displays offers from airlines, hotels, and online travel agencies, then redirects users to the providers' booking interfaces. Revenue is generated through cost per click advertising arrangements and referral commissions paid by partner providers.[1]
This model differs from full-service OTAs such as Despegar, which handle booking transactions directly. Metasearch platforms rely on traffic volume and the conversion rates they deliver to advertising partners.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Turismocity recibió inversiones por US$6 millones y compró una empresa brasileña". La Nación. 29 September 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Turismocity recibe US$ 6 millones de inversión y sale de compras". Forbes Argentina. 6 October 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "FareCompare acquired by fellow travel search brand Turismocity". PhocusWire. 15 December 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Turismocity raises $6M and acquires Brazilian travel platform". PhocusWire. 27 September 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
- ↑ "Turismo City se amplía y compró empresa brasilera Quanto Custa Viajar". Ámbito. 28 September 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
External links
Category:Travel websites Category:Companies established in 2014 Category:Technology companies of Argentina Category:Companies based in Buenos Aires Category:Metasearch engines Category:Online travel agencies
This article "Turismocity" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Turismocity. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
