JAKARTA, May 28th, 2012 – Wego, Asia-Pacific’s leading travel metasearch company has announced that it has made a strategic investment in Valadoo, a social commerce travel business that provides its members with a curated selection of unique, discounted travel offers and getaways targeting Indonesia’s growing number of leisure travellers. The investment forms part of a strategy to develop one of Asia’s fastest growing travel sectors and reaffirms Wego’s commitment to help Indonesian travellers save time, pay less, and travel more.
Valadoo offers best-in-class packages and getaways at domestic and selected international
destinations, including exotic dive packages in Raja Ampat Papua and Derawan
Kalimantan, hip island hopping experiences at Pantai Belitung and Karimun Jawa and shopping trips to Hong Kong and Singapore. Service and simplicity in fulfilment is a focus for the company with social media assets Facebook and Twitter as their consumer touch points. The aim is to deliver happiness by means of travelling.
Wego launched a dedicated travel metasearch site in Bahasa Indonesia wego.co.id earlier this year and is rapidly expanding its domestic operations partnering with local travel businesses to enhance it’s domestic hotel and flight offering and provide more locally relevant deals and packages. The synergy is obvious. Valadoo will join Wego in a new Jakarta office to collaborate on exclusive daily deals, editorial, digital marketing and social programs.
Co-Founder, Jaka Wiradisuria continues as Chief Executive Officer of Valadoo.com. Wego
Co-Founders Ross Veitch (CEO) and Craig Hewett (CCO) both join the Valadoo Board of Commissioners and Graham Hills, Managing Director of Wego Indonesia joins the Valadoo Board of Directors. Valadoo will remain independent, while benefitting from the resources and expertise of Wego to help the business scale.
Hills explained:
“Valadoo recognised early the demand among urban Indonesians to explore and enjoy domestic travel. The country is in a discovery phase and the tourism network is rapidly expanding to cater to it, but the options need to be affordable. Valadoo therefore has a great proposition and a talented team.”
Wiradisuria added:
“The strategic partnership with Wego will help strengthen Valadoo as an Indonesian social commerce travel business through the combination of international e-commerce best practices with local market knowledge and social media expertise. Moreover, we also see the partnership as a significant development for the Indonesia tourism industry as it will help open up more tourism options for both domestic and international travellers to explore Indonesia.”
Valadoo has two additional features, Valadoo Travel Consultants and Jelajah. Valadoo
Travel Consultants are a group of travel experts drawing on their vast shared experience to help fulfill customers’ needs with customized trips. Jelajah jelajah.valadoo.com is a
travellers’ digital journal written and edited by Valadoo, providing travel-related insights ranging from simple tips to in depth destination coverage.
Offerings from Valadoo will enhance the travel deals that Wego already markets at wego.co.id/deals. The content also has the potential to be featured on the 39 metasearch sites Wego operates in 30 languages around the world. Wego compares over 350,000
accommodation options and 600 full service and low cost carriers globally, giving users a complete view of their travel options.
Hills concluded:
“We are passionate about Indonesia and keen to showcase to international audiences the unique and extraordinary travel experiences that are only available here. If Wego and Valadoo encourage greater inbound and domestic tourism as a result of our shared efforts, we will have achieved our ultimate goal.”
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For media enquiries, please contact:
Andre C. Madian
Marketing Communication Manager
Valadoo Indonesia
Tel: +62818-171-831
Email: [email protected]
Graham Hills
Managing Director
Wego Indonesia
Tel: +62 812 8689 0676
Email: [email protected]
About Valadoo Getaway
Valadoo Getaway is an Indonesian social commerce travel business that provides a one-stop solution for people searching for holiday alternatives, both as weekend getaways, long period holidays and even in-city escapades through accessible exclusive offers at affordable price ranges. For more information about Valadoo Getaway please visit: www.valadoo.com/about
About Wego
Considered the ideal site to begin planning travel, Wego.com gives travellers a complete view of available flights, hotels, travel packages and deals 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: www.wego.com/about