As Jambuluwuk Hotels and Resorts expands to new locations in Indonesia, the homegrown, family-owned company will continue to target international and longhaul travellers while intensifying outreach to offline wholesalers.
Currently owning and operating five properties in Yogyakarta, Bali, Puncak (West Java, off Jakarta), Batu (Malang, East Java) and Gili Trawangan (Lombok) with a total of 557 rooms, the group will launch a hotel in Jakarta this year and Garut (West Java) in 2019.
Arcs House, the owning company, is also planning to expand Jambuluwuk’s footprint to Labuan Bajo (Komodo), Ubud and Bandung.
“The government is (developing) 10 New Bali’s and we have surveyed some of them, including Morotai, which we find beautiful. But it will probably take some time before we can come in,” Jambuluwuk’s vice president marketing Mella Purwanaika told TTG Asia, adding that emerging tourist destinations are preferred due to the group’s leisure focus.
The company’s existing Bali, Yogyakarta and Gili Trawangan properties are popular with European markets – especially Germany and the UK – and Australia.
Mella has also observed good growth of the Indian market to Bali. “(We get) the majority of this market through OTAs and as we add properties, we would also like to work with brick-and-mortar wholesalers,” she said.
Jambuluwuk has in the last couple of years been actively participating at travel marts such as ITB Berlin, ITB Asia and ATF to flag the hotel brand to the wholesalers.
“We have also appointed Asia Reps Munchen as our marketing representative, and we are planning to appoint one for India soon,” she added.
Mella shared that Jambuluwuk-managed properties are positioned like “gathering resorts”, targeting families, friend groups and business events.
To serve these segments, the bungalows at Jambuluwuk Puncak Resort, for example, have three and four bedrooms. Meawhile the Jambuluwuk Oceano Resort Gili Trawangan features family rooms with double, triple and quadruple beds, as well as a playgound, which will soon be upgraded to include indoor classes, day care and nursery.
All properties in Jambuluwuk’s portfolio have meeting facilities, while Jambuluwuk Convention Hall & Resort Batu also features outdoor activities such as ATVs and flying fox.
On whether the hotel group would enter the business hotel category, Mella said: “We do have that plan, but we will only manage properties, not build our own.”
It is not enough to keep up with the digital expectations of today’s tech-savvy consumers, Expedia says. Exceeding these expectations is a “travel industry imperative”.
To help travel service providers anticipate new needs, Expedia casts the spotlight on four key trends of 2018.
AI and machine learning: chatbots become ubiquitous
Expedia expects 2018 to be a year where AI, in the form of machine learning, becomes not just a futuristic technology, but an integrated and valuable everyday tool.
Growing “digital impatience” among consumers and expectations for instant responses to queries and purchasing requests has driven adoption of digital assistants. According to Expedia, 62 per cent of global consumers today are comfortable with an AI application responding to their query.
Chatbots are already enabling deeper and easier traveller communication, and are expanding to different mediums: chat, social channels, voice assistants and more. In addition, new tools and technologies in this space will allow hoteliers to connect with consumers in deeper and more meaningful ways.
Voice: Siri and Google go mainstream
Voice-enabled digital assistants are poised to not just change the travel industry, Expedia posits, but nearly every industry we touch in our lives. By 2021, there will be 7.5 billion digital assistants in the world.
Digital assistants today are giving us weather and traffic information, and entertainment content – but they are also enabling us to search hotels, check the status of flights, and more.
“As an industry, we need to be at the forefront of testing voice skills, and aligning with the growing traveler adoption of this technology, to ensure we’re equipped and at full performance when it becomes ubiquitous”, Arthur Chapin, senior vice president – global product and design, Expedia Group. said.
Citing Business Insider UK, Expedia shared that the number of virtual digital assistant users has increased over 40 per cent from 2016 to 2017 with an estimated of 158 per cent increase from 2017 to 2021.
Expedia also shared numbers from Seattle-based voice over IP carrier Speakeasy showing that nearly half of global smartphone users will use voice technology by 2020 and 47 per cent will use voice technology at least once a month.
Activities booking in an experience economy
With 72 per cent of consumers seeking experiences over things, Expedia said there is great opportunity to target consumers who will not just book a hotel room, but also experiences from dinner reservations, to tours and activities to entertainment.
One-stop shop for packages
Consumers expect a seamless, one-stop experience in nearly every area of their lives. A recent multi-generational study by Brand Expedia shows that 80 per cent of travellers find it useful to book all their trip components together, and for Gen Z, the number is massive 87 per cent.
The upside for hotels is that offering rooms in “package bookings”, alongside flights and cars, typically means higher average daily rate, longer booking windows and fewer cancellations. Plus, consumers can streamline their research and booking into one seamless purchase. Package demand on Expedia generated nearly 1.4 times longer booking window when compared to standalone hotel bookings.
For hoteliers, these longer stays and longer booking windows mean more opportunities for them to engage with and upsell consumers – both prior to check-in and on-property, Expedia says.