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TECHNOLOGY has a key role to play for travel players to successfully attract Indonesian Millennials, an emerging market segment which has displayed a penchant for taking holidays on impulse, a heavy reliance on word of mouth, travelling twice a year with each trip lasting an average of four nights.
These were the observations shared during TravelRave 2015: Capturing the Next Wave of Tourism Growth in Indonesia, a roundtable discussion organised by Singapore Tourism Board (STB) in Jakarta yesterday.
Andrew Phua, director, exhibitions and conferences at STB, said: “Millennials are a tremendous opportunity for the travel industry. To successfully capture this market, players will need to understand their preferences and deliver what they are looking for.”
He added: “The Asian Millennials are poised to be the main growth drivers in the tourism industry. They spent US$215 billion on travel in 2013 and are expected to increase their travel budget by 58 per cent by 2020.”
Danny Kim, analyst, travel team at Google APAC, said: “Millennials’ online behavior have changed significantly over the past few years. As mobile and Internet penetration continue to expand, people have greater access to information and options in each phase of their consumer journey.”
Concurred Gaery Undarsa, managing director and co-founder at Tiket.com: “Increasing internet coverage and the widespread use of smartphones has opened up a huge space in the online booking industry. It is thus the industry’s role to educate the market on the benefits that can be reaped.”
Recognising the need to stay competitive amid changing market demands, Indonesian travel players are increasingly integrating technology into their business operations.
Anthony Akili, group president and CEO of Smailing Tours and Travel Service, said: “In Smailing, 70 per cent of our market are business travellers and we’re focusing on the high-end segment for the leisure side. We are preparing our online platform for this and hopefully we will be able to launch next year.”
Adi Satria, vice president of sales, marketing and distribution for Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore at AccorHotels, revealed that they had just launched an online check-in function for hotels in Indonesia to provide a seamless travel experience for customers.
