The Wrap: It’s all about partnership – STB with Traveloka and Trans Digital, Trip Affiliates Network with TX Travel Indonesia
26/05/2022 by WiT

THE Wrap is a round-up of news in the travel and technology sector – new partnerships, product launches, aviation industry updates, innovative solutions, and more …

STB, Traveloka, Trans Digital Media join forces to revitalise Indonesians’ wanderlust to visit city state

New Experience – Tour at Funan Urban Farm (Image credit: Edible Garden City)

SINGAPORE is gearing up to welcome visitors from Indonesia with its SingapoReimagine recovery campaign to reignite visitors’ passion for travel through innovative experiences in the city state.

To drive visitation, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has inked two Memoranda of Cooperation (MoC), with lifestyle super app Traveloka and Trans Digital Media to start of the year-long rollout of joint tactical campaigns

The MoCs are STB’s first key lifestyle and travel partnerships inked in Indonesia since the pandemic, to position Singapore as the holiday destination of choice with great offers following the city’s reopening to fully-vaccinated visitors with no quarantine and testing requirements under the Vaccinated Travel Framework (VTF).

Singapore saw a 252% increase in international visitor arrivals year-on-year in Q1 2022. This is on the back on international arrivals climbing month-on-month for the third straight month in April 2022. Some 294,300 visitors hit the island’s shores in April, up from 121,200 in March, although volumes were still far lower than the 1.6 million recorded in April 2019, before the pandemic.

Indonesia overtook India as the biggest source of arrivals, with 58,270 travellers in April, up from 13,620 in March. Singapore expects to welcome even more visitors from May as the result of the transition to the VTF from April 1, 2022.

“With the strong rebound in the Indonesia market in recent months as a result of quarantine-free and test-free travel for the fully vaccinated, we are doubling down on our SingapoReimagine recovery campaign to maintain top-of-mind awareness and recapture mindshare amongst our target audiences,” said John Conceicao, STB’s executive director South-east Asia.

“Through our partnerships with Traveloka and Trans Digital Media we hope to entice Indonesian travellers with a wide range of curated tactical offers such as flight and hotel packages and other lifestyle offerings to drive and sustain visitorship through to next year.”

STB also partnered with three Indonesian celebrities – Sarah Sechan,Marissa Nasution and Denada Tambunan to showcase a different side of what the city has to offer, from new attractions and novel dining concepts to wellness retreats and sustainable experiences for its three-part SingapoReimagine video series.

The partnership with Traveloka will drive interest to a wider target audience and provide an easier booking experience for Singapore offerings across five markets in the region – Indonesia, Malaysia Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam.

STB Indonesia has previously partnered with Traveloka in 2019 before the pandemic, and with the improving travel situation regionally, this partnership is timely to reignite the pent-up travel demand and sustain the recovery momentum.

Shirley Lesmana, chief marketing officer of Traveloka, said: “Before the pandemic Singapore was consistently amongst the top three tourist destinations for Indonesians, and we are hoping that this partnership will continue the momentum, revitalizing the wanderlust in Indonesians to travel to Singapore.”

The partnership with Trans Digital Media will see AntaVaya,one of Indonesia’s largest travel agencies, creating new Singapore products supported by exclusive Bank Mega deals and promoted throughout their media and retail outlets nationally.

Abdul Aziz, president director, Trans Digital Media, said: “We are truly excited about the collaboration with STB to strengthen the appeal of its tourism offerings to the Indonesian market.”

Some of the new, innovative experiences in Singapore include SkyHelix Sentosa, Singapore’s highest open-air panoramic ride –  the first carbon-neutral attraction on Sentosa Island,  the Museum of Ice Cream, the Ice Hotel Gallery at Snow City, which is Singapore’s first ice hotel experience and Funan Urban Farm.

Upcoming events include the first-ever Wellness Festival Singapore on June 3-12, the Singapore Food Festival in Q3 2022 and F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2022 on September 30 to October 2.

Trip Affiliates Network (TA Network) in technology tie-up with TX Travel Indonesia

Through the partnership TA Network omni-channels allows TX to extend its reach to an extensive customer base through a single API connection. (Image credit: Trip Affiliates Network)

Cloud-based turnkey solutions provider and travel tech platform Trip Affiliates Network (TA Network) has partnered with hotel wholesale and outbound travel operator TX Travel Indonesia (TX).

 TA Network said in a statement, through this partnership its omni-channels allows TX to extend its reach to an extensive customer base through a single API connection.

In addition, TX adds to TA Network’s extensive inventory of properties that use its technology platform to manage all aspects of their business, from booking engines to cross border payments with TA Networks virtual credit card solutions.

“We are always seeking high-value partners to complement our expanding platform,” says Josef Foo, managing partner, TA Network. “With TX now part of our global distribution platform, we can work together as global travel reopens to establish and grow the regional footprint.”

TX’s founder & CEO Antonius Thedy added he is “excited” to work with TA Network to expand its products worldwide. “We look forward to further implementing TA Network’s voucher mechanism & virtual credit card payment solutions to enhance our franchisees across Indonesia.”

The announcement comes as the pandemic wanes and travel demand is increasing. Since the beginning of the year TA Network has seen bookings and traction improve steadily, with strong demands coming from the Asia Pacific region in particular. As restrictions have started to lift in other markets travel there has followed similar trends. TA Network is seeing this demand in real-time across its global distribution network.

• Featured image credit (SkyHelix Sentosa): Mount Faber Leisure Group

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