Jakarta, December 6th 2011 – Ramadan in Indonesia gave Wego the proof of concept needed to launch a new Bahasa Indonesia version of its global site. A huge spike in traffic in the run up to the holiday period and evidence from data trails users left behind confirmed that the travel site’s strategy for Indonesia was on track.
Indonesia is at the beginning of an explosion in domestic and international travel, with frustrated demand for information on accommodation in every category – and the ability to compare prices across the archipelago’s rapidly expanding tourism network.
Wego, the leading travel metasearch site in Asia Pacific, was able to respond with its
dedicated team in Jakarta directing the development of the new www.wego.co.id, complete with innovative search tools to help make it possible for everyone to enjoy travel.
The first, aptly named DateWise™, identifies the lowest fares on any given day across any
given month on one-way or return flights – for all carriers, from Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, Sriwijaya Air, Batavia Air and Citilink to Indonesia Airasia, Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Tiger Airways and Valuair. Coded in Asia – it’s an industry first in this region.
As Graham Hills, General Manager – Indonesia explained:
“Users just need to indicate they have flexible dates and choose a month to see the cheapest fares from across the entire market for that period. Getting the same information by any other means would take days, but you see it graphically in seconds. It is all part of Wego’s mission to ensure travellers save time planning, pay less and travel more.”
The next defines popular search. Wego.co.id tracks the pages viewed across the archipelago by hundreds of thousands of travellers and reflects back what is considered interesting and valuable in the site. Indonesians see which destinations and hotels are most popular with their countrymen. The real-time technology may be complex, but the resulting rankings are refreshingly simple. For first-time travellers, this form of presentation is hugely reassuring.
Hotel reviews, often checked by users to gauge standards, are also aggregated from a
number of sources to give a broad and balanced perspective of any given property.
Graham commented:
“This is a first for Indonesia. We are close to a perfect view of the global travel market, but from the local perspective. Indonesians can begin to discover the rich and diverse tourism opportunities available to them here at home – and the world of travel opportunities beyond our islands.”
Jakarta continues to be the most frequently searched destination for Indonesians checking flights, followed by Bali, Surabaya and Singapore.
DateWise™ Fare Finder search from Jakarta to Bali across December
For those looking to travel from Jakarta to Bali, the cheapest day this month to fly is on December 14th, according to the DateWise™ Fare Finder tool when looking to mix outbound and return carriers to maximise savings.
For accommodation, Singapore is checked most frequently with the following top 5 leading in terms of popularity. They indicate the range of properties needed to meet demand from the capital:
Singapore Hotel Searches by Indonesian Users
- Marina Bay Sands
- Mandarin Orchard Hotel
- Concorde Hotel Singapore
- Fernloft City Hostel – East Coast
- York Hotel
Wego added one more feature, specifically for Indonesia: a Facebook Connect login. Graham is expecting a large share of traffic to www.wego.co.id to come from social networking sites. Indonesian travellers can already interact with the Wego Indonesia team on Facebook, Twitter, Koprol and Google+. Wego welcomes all feedback.
For more information, please contact:
General Manager
Graham Hills
[email protected]
About Wego
Considered the ideal site to begin planning travel, Wego.com gives travellers a complete
view of available flights and hotels from hundreds of travel websites in the time that it takes to search just one. The latest pricing, availability and reviews are shown, with tools provided to select the cheapest days to fly and to find the best hotel offers. Travellers then simply click through to the partner websites to book.
Wego.com was founded in 2005 by former executives of Intercontinental Hotels Group,
Yahoo!, Priceline and ZUJI. Investors include News Digital Media and Tiger Global. In 2010, Wego merged with HolidayIQ.com, an established India based travel content and community site. For more information, please visit http: www.wego.com/about
