Baidu Launches Baidu Maps and Qunar to Support Indonesian Tourism

Together with the Ministry of Tourism, a Chinese technology company Baidu resumed the strategic partnership by launching two additional applications, Baidu Maps and Qunar. It is hoped that these two applications can boost the government's target of bringing 2 million Chinese tourists to Indonesia this year.

These two additional applications will later complement other Baidu products, including Baidu Search Engine, Display Ads, and Baidu Travel. All of these products are claimed to be very effective in educating the Chinese people about Indonesia's mainstay destinations, such as Bali, Lombok, Banyuwangi, Jogja-Solo-Semarang, Manado, and Labuan Bajo.

Baidu Maps is a digital map that offers views of satellite imagery, street maps, and indoor maps. In addition, Baidu Maps also provides recommendations for the best types of transportation that tourists can consider in reaching their destination.

It is claimed that currently active users of Baidu Maps reach 300 million people per month point of interest (POI) globally of 140 million and managing location requests of 72 billion per day. This app can be downloaded for Android and iOS users.

Meanwhile, Qunar is the number one travel app in China with 4,5 million daily active visitors. By accessing Qunar, tourists who want to travel in Indonesia can obtain accurate information about domestic and international flights, holiday packages, and other information.

Qunar itself is a mobile company and online travel platforms (OTP) which is majority owned by Baidu.

"After the launch in Indonesia, we will launch Baidu Maps in other Asia Pacific countries. At the first launch in Indonesia, there will be 1.000 POIs covering Jakarta and Bali. This number will continue to be developed, including 10 other main destinations that are priorities for the Ministry of Tourism, "explained Baidu Indonesia's Business Director Ken Tao, Thursday (4/5).

He continued, "The OTP approach which is the focus of this collaboration is also very strategic to implement because the majority of Chinese tourists are under 45 years old and 68% of them use internet-based information as one of the main references in determining tourist destinations."

Regarding his commitment to supporting Indonesian tourism and business as a whole, Ken said that his party plans to increase the value of its investment this year to double the amount invested in the previous year of US $ 5 million.

Reach the target

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the collaboration with Baidu last year showed impressive results. With the online approach, it succeeded in increasing the number of Chinese tourist visits to 27,3% or worth 1,14 million people, specifically for Bali, which increased to 43,4%.

Access to information related to Indonesian tourism published in various tourist trips and on Baidu Travel, in a short time was able to attract the interest of more than 320 thousand readers with impressions of over 1 million.

Destination searches with the keyword "Bali Island" also increased by 45% and the keyword "Indo Travel" also increased to 11%.

"Today, if the marketing strategy doesn't use digital, it's a loss," said Arief.

He said, "Through cooperation with Baidu, I think it will be the main factor that pushes the achievement of the target of Chinese tourist arrivals to 1,14 million. This year we are targeting the number to increase to 2 million tourists."

Previously, the government targeted to receive 2 million Chinese tourists this year and 10 million visits in 2019.