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Record Positive Performance in Q1 2021, Two OTA Players Rely on "Staycation" Trend

Boost revenue continues to grow with various marketing campaigns

Two local OTA players, namely Tiket.com and Pegipegi, recorded positive growth for the airline ticket and hotel reservation business during Q1 2021 compared to the previous period. Trend staycation which spread throughout the pandemic, became one of the supporting factors behind this achievement.

Looking at the performance of Tiket.com, although it is not described in detail, flight ticket sales increased by 331% for hotel reservations at 321%. Meanwhile, the highest growth actually came from ticket sales TO DO . holiday activities jumped by 10.083% compared to the same period in the previous year. Then, in terms of users, it increased by 299% or almost three times.

The rapid increase in TO DO is none other than because this product was just released to coincide in March 2020 and the inauguration was carried out at the beginning of this year. Even though it is still a new product, Tiket.com Co-Founder & CMO Gaery Undarsa explained, TO DO answers the needs of customers to visit attractions and playground for families, and complementary needs for Covid-19 test trips.

“We see that people are now more strategic when planning their vacation. [..] The sharp increase in transaction numbers in hotel reservations is proof of Tiket.com's success in inviting people to vacation in the form of: staycation, Work From Hotel, or vacation near home safely and according to health protocols," he explained, Monday (19/4).

Gaery continued, “Ticket.com's Q1 performance far exceeded best case scenario which we compiled. As one of the players in the tourism industry, we are very optimistic that Tiket.com's performance in Q2 will be even more intense.”

Pegipegi also made positive achievements, which recorded a combined recovery rate in its two main businesses of 51%. The contribution of each of these businesses is not elaborated further. “Over time, we want recovery rate can exceed 100% by the end of this year," said Head of Commercial Pegipegi Ryan Kartawidjaja, Tuesday (20/4).

In contrast to Tiket.com, which began to diversify its business into travel support products (non-essential), Pegipegi So far, it still relies entirely on its business from the travel and hotel reservation business. As a result, the company has not been spared the impact of the pandemic since March last year.

Although he did not specify what the impact would be on the company, Ryan referred to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) that hotel occupancy trends experienced their lowest point in April and May 2020. Then the trend continued to climb up in the following month until now.

The same condition was recorded for plane tickets. However, domestic travel is slowly starting to enter a recovery point, while international travel is still very limited due to the ongoing pandemic.

"We see that there are several trends after post Covid-19, in the next 1-2 years domestic tourism will become the backbone of national tourism. Then more and more consumers will choose digital solutions because it is more convenient, and finally the price is no longer so concern the main thing because now many are more concerned with comfort when traveling,” added Ryan.

He revealed that Pegipegi is preparing new innovations this year, but is still closing the meeting regarding the details.

Rely on trend staycation

To boost transactions in the main business, these two OTA players have made a compact program marketing aggressive one. Gaery said that Tiket.com's achievements did not escape the contributions of campaigns that were regularly held, one of which was the sudden OTW (Online Tiket Week) which was held for a week on 5-11 April 2021, which succeeded in making additional contributions in early Q2 2021.

The campaign succeeded in boosting the number of airplane ticket purchases by 81%, hotel reservations by 131%, and TO DO tickets by 75%, an increase compared to the same campaign earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the most visited destinations based on hotel sales during the campaign were Jakarta, Bandung, Bali, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta. Meanwhile, for airline tickets are Surabaya, Medan, Makassar, Bali, and Yogyakarta.

Pegipegi created the KURMA (Kejar Untung Ramadan) campaign program with the convenience of booking flight departure tickets that are more flexible, either now or later. Also, alternative hotel reservation promotions for staycations. From internal research conducted by the company, revealed that 69% of respondents plan to staycation during Lebaran, and 28% of other respondents said they wanted to staycation outside the city but still close to the city where you live.

Another thing revealed in the research is that as many as 83,3% of respondents chose not to return to their hometown in 2020. Before the homecoming ban, 72% of respondents planned to return to their hometown in 2021. Meanwhile, 28% of respondents decided not to return to their hometown in 2021.

This research was conducted to determine the preference for returning home for Lebaran 2021 which was attended by more than 700 respondents throughout Indonesia. The research was conducted from March 25 to April 1 and was conducted using an online method.

As is known, the beginning of the year, going home, and the end of the year are peak seasons for the tourism industry players. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the government still prohibits going home. BPS data records last year when Eid fell on May 23-24, the number of passengers actually experienced a sharp decline in May 2020 as a result of the 2020 homecoming ban. From 840.000 passengers in April 2020 to 90.000 passengers in May 2020, although it rose again to June 2020 to 620.000 passengers.

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