Insights into the online travel market in Indonesia

Editor's Notes

1. Indonesia has a population of around 250 million people with around half of the people aged under 30.Internet adoption is growing very quickly with the number of internet users reaching 61 million last year. This is around 25% of the population. What’s interesting is that usage is highest on mobile with 62% of users accessing the internet via their phones. 2012 was the first year mobile usage overtook internet cafes. Feature phone usage is roughly 4 times larger than smart phones. According to comScore the number of unique users accessing travel websites in Indonesia is between 3.5 and 4.5 million per month.
2. With so many young people accessing the internet and social media being one of the highest activities online it’s no surprise this is changing the way Indonesians travel.Social media plays a role throughout 4 stages of travel.Picking the next holiday destination is regularly influenced by a user’s social graph. Whether it’s the photos user see on Facebook, Tweets and photo shares or blog posts, Indonesian travellers are learning about new destinations and making destination choices with the help of social media. Moving onto planning, Google is central to how users search for travel information, but they’re also Tweeting to ask for advice or looking up hashtags, checking local forum sites like Kaskus or reading blogs from influential travellers. When making booking decisions many of our users are posting to our Facebook page or mentioning us on Twitter looking for advice and best prices. My team is standing by to answer them.In trip the mobile phone is always on and social media doesn’t stop and for many Indonesian travellers it increases. Sharing photos is hot via Instagram and Twitter with travellers looking for instant satisfaction that their connections know they’re travelling somewhere exciting. Travellers are also looking for advice in trip and Twitter plays a big part in this. Post trip Indonesians are sharing more detailed accounts of the travellers and the photos and videos they didn’t take on their phones.
3. A recent study by Amadeus showed that 61% of Indonesian travellers mention that getting advice from their connections is the main reason they use social media during travel. In fact in trip social media use is highest in Indonesia when compared to other APAC markets. To illustrate the scale of social media I’ve included 4 individuals Twitter accounts here on the right where the users have built their followings based on being a source for travel information. Individuals like these help influence the decisions of many Indonesian travellers.
4. So I’ve talked a little about the Indonesian travel market in terms of the internet, but what are they doing, where are they going?Usually I talk about what’s happening from a domestic perspective because as you can see demand for domestic travel is much higher than outbound, but last year we saw an increase of 90% in searches on Wego for international destinations.24% of all searches on Wego Indonesia are now outbound.
5. So where are Indonesians travelling?You can see along the top the 5 most popular destinations searched on Wego Indonesia and their year on year growth. Clearly the Kpop craze and great deals are helping drive the 234% increase for Seoul. Moving down you can see the rest of the top 20 with Paris and London leading the growth. It’s easy to see that Asian destinations dominate with 84% of outbound searches, but growth was fastest for Europe with searches up 335% year on year.
6. Indonesians don’t get much annual leave, 12 days is the legal minimum so when Indonesians travel is influenced heavily by holiday periods.The first peak is just after school exams which often falls around the same time as Weisak or Buddhist New Year. Whilst not officially school holidays this is a key holiday period.The end of Ramadhan, known locally as Lebaran, offers a great opportunity for Indonesians to travel with most companies around the country shutting down for at least a week. IdulAdha, Islamic New Year, Christmas and end of year school holidays then drive the next peek periods.
7. Let’s look now at booking lead times. What we see on Wego is that the majority of searches are for within 30 days. With so much outbound travel being to nearby destinations like Singapore, often for a weekend, we see that lead time is often quite short. For destinations further afield we see lead time increase. Many Indonesians are also planning well in advance trying to find the best deals.
8. The last thing I want to talk about is price. The Indonesian market is very price sensitive and reacts very strongly to promotions. Usage of budget airlines tops APAC markets and that’s across both leisure and business travel. On Wego we see at least 25% of outbound flights on low cost carriers with AirAsia leading the way.For hotels 50% of rooms selected are for under $100 per night with 3 and 4 star hotels preferred.
9. I’d like to finish off with some tips for targeting the Indonesian market.Number 1: Establish a social presence for your product – it’s very important for travellers to be able to find you and engage with you pre trip, on trip and post trip. 2. Identify and engage with key opinion leaders in social networks. These people can help you influence thousands if not millions of potential travellers.Number 3: Mobile is not just about smart phones. Feature phones are 4 times bigger and mobile usage is largely social.4. It might be Asia today in terms of destinations, but Europe is growing fast. 5. Leave time is limited, focus on key dates.And lastly pricing is key – Indonesia is a young, price sensitive market that reacts strongly to promotions.