Brand Expedia and the Indonesia Ministry of Tourism (MOT) are joining forces to promote and drive international travel demand to 15 key destinations in the country.
The agreements, which was signed in Singapore on October 19, were a renewal and enhancement of the partnership both organisations entered into since 2016.
The first agreement involves a three-month digital marketing contract with Expedia Group Media Solutions to promote travellers to Indonesia, while a second agreement allows visitors to book trips to Indonesia on the Ministry of Tourism’s www.indonesia.travel website via Brand Expedia sites in Singapore, South Korea and Japan through an application programming interface (API).
Spanning a period of 12 months, the API agreement will focus on attracting visitors from 45 key cities across 18 target markets including Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Australia. It will also link potential travellers to Expedia via strategically-placed ad units on the www.indonesia.travel website.
This will enable international travellers to take advantage of a wider variety of travel booking options, including flight selections from more than 500 airlines and access to more than 750,000 properties.
Additionally, Brand Expedia will provide discounts and promotions for travel to Indonesia, to help boost international tourist arrivals to the key destinations of Jakarta and Bali, as well as other destinations including Lake Toba, Lombok, Bandung, Banyuwangi and Labuan Bajo.
Oerdula Oertel, director of partnership, Greater China, South-east Asia and India of Expedia, said: “API integration on the ministry’s website is completely new element of the agreement. That is a very progressive step in the MOT side, usually you would see a tourism website focusing on inspirational of the journey, showing the pictures of the beauty of the destination but when the customers want to book, they have to find another (site). Now, they will now find the opportunity to book hotels and tours on the MOT website, which is directly supplied through Expedia.”
The ongoing cooperation with Expedia is part of MOT’s digital marketing strategy.
Said Arief Yahya, Indonesian minister of tourism: “Our number one strategy initiative in tourism promotion is to go digital. There is no other choice of promotional media other than digital… Some 70 per cent of our customers search and share using digital.”
With the renewed cooperation, the tourism minister expects Expedia to promote Indonesia’s curated events and special deals while tracking the result of the promotions.
“I also have a difficult request to Expedia to become our B2B platform for travel agents and operators within Indonesia going forward,” Arief told TTG Asia.
