Tours/activities seller GoBe, a business that Royal
Caribbean Cruises Ltd. launched in 2017,
has stopped accepting new bookings.
According to a message on its website,
GoBe will honor all existing bookings.
"The GoBe team is grateful to the thousands of
customers who used our tours and activities to enhance their vacations,"
managing director Billy Campbell wrote. "GoBe was launched to provide a
fun, intuitive way for travelers to book tours and activities all over the
world. Unfortunately, we will not be accepting any bookings as of May 15, 2018."
Campbell also thanked GoBe's employees and tour operator
partners.
"We remain proud of the team's good work, and we are
optimistic that we will find places for most GoBe team members elsewhere in our
organization," said RCCL chief communications officer Rob Zeiger.
Zeiger said the decision to shutter GoBe "wasn't
for lack of skills or sound thinking."
"We had a good team with a lot of ideas.
It's just always hard to be a startup and break through into a large,
established marketplace," he said.
GoBe was launched in March 2017. At the time, RCCL said its
goal was to create a recognized brand in the tours and activities space, which
Campbell called "ripe for development." It did not pay travel agent
commissions.
GoBe enabled users to search for tours and activities based
on cruise itinerary, destination, interests or group requirements.