- Uber is now providing sizzling air balloon rides in Turkey’s Cappadocia area for $159.
- It seems to be a part of the corporate’s broader push to diversify its providers past ride-hailing.
- The brand new providing joins Uber’s unconventional experience choices like reserving boats, tuk-tuks, and flights.
Uber is now providing sizzling air balloon rides for passengers in Turkey’s Cappadocia area, as the corporate pushes to diversify choices past ride-hailing.
The service — which is out there at present via November 19 — requires a 12-hour advance reserving by way of the Uber Reserve function and prices 150 euros, or round $159, the corporate mentioned Monday. For that value, customers get a 1.5-hour dawn balloon experience over Cappadocia’s volcanic surroundings.
Cappadocia, famed for its volcanic surroundings and historic websites, is one in every of Turkey’s hottest vacationer locations. The area accounted for roughly 10% of Turkey’s 44.6 million international guests in 2022, per the Turkish tourism and tradition ministry. And Uber mentioned in its assertion that worldwide journeys to Turkey elevated by greater than 30% in 2023, and virtually 26 million individuals accessed the app this yr.
A 2022 report by native reserving platform Upballoon mentioned that over 150 sizzling air balloon launches happen each day in Cappadocia.
The brand new Uber Balloon function seems to be a part of the corporate’s pivot towards areas past ride-hailing. Again in 2019, Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, mentioned he needs his firm to grow to be the “working system to your on a regular basis life.”
And sizzling air balloons aren’t the one method Uber has expanded its choices. The app already permits customers to e-book Uber Boat rides alongside the Thames River in London or Mykonos in Greece, tuk-tuks in Sri Lanka and India, and helicopter rides in New York. The corporate additionally rolled out the power to e-book flights for customers within the UK in Could.
For context, Uber reported second-quarter revenues of $9.2 billion in 2023, a 14% enhance from the identical interval final yr. This additionally marked the first time that Uber reported quarterly earnings. Regardless of this, the corporate’s inventory worth stays under its peak in 2021.
The corporate additionally mentioned customers would begin seeing adverts in its app throughout main markets within the US in June.
Uber didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, despatched exterior common enterprise hours.
