Travel is back with a bang so which Apps are we using most often? | Eureka AI Moment

Michael Hawkins

Friday September 29 2023

Indonesia is one of the most travelled countries in the world, what with the annual murdik at lebaran, the significant economic migration and such outstanding tourist spots.

The country is also one of the most Mobile Digital first nations, with eCommerce, Food Delivery and Social Media all showing global high rates of penetration.

Post pandemic, these two facts come together strongly in the battle for the mobile travellers attention! ?For today’s Eureka AI Moment we are looking at Online Booking apps in Indonesia.

Top 10 Hotel & Accommodation Apps in Indonesia - Reach

In July 2023 12.8% of Indonesian smartphone users accessed a travel app.?

Local unicorns Traveloka and Tiket are challenged by Global leader Agoda for the top spot each month in Indonesia. The other global players, Booking.com, Trip Advisor and Airbnb have significant room for growth in penetration in the archipelago.

However, that is not the whole story as the average user of travel Apps visits only once a month, if at all.

Undoubtedly, the revenue prize in travel is the much sought after frequent traveller - those consumers who book trips more than once a week. For airlines, 12% of frequent flyer customers represent 75% of revenue for example. ?

So how does this distribution of consumers look for Travel Apps?

Top 10 Hotel & Accommodation Apps in Indonesia - Frequency

In this chart we look at the proportion of users for each brand who visit each app weekly (in yellow) or every three days (Gray). ?

The outlier brand here is Booking.com, with 11% of its users being the most engaged users vs 4% of the total category.

What is Booking.com share of Frequent Travellers?

If we look at this same data in reverse, we see that Booking.com enjoys disproportionate usage from the heaviest users of the category. They attract 40% of these prized customers vs only 16% of all users. Why is this?

Most likely this data is proof of a successful loyalty program. The Booking.com “Genius” program is unique in the market in that it gives upfront discounts to frequent users - paid for by the properties they book thanks to their promise of high ranking online search. ?

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So What?

The Indonesian digital travel market is highly competitive between the 3 leading players - Traveloka, Agoda and Tiket. ? However with only 12.8% penetration, there is still plenty of room for growth by these players.

While the power of penetration is important to ensure light category users visit your website whenever they need to enter the category, a strategy for heavy users is also important.

Booking.com have created differentiation in attracting the most valuable customers to their brand through their up-front discounts program.

How does this look in your category?

Do you know how to grow heavy users in your category? Do you want to know?

The best way to understand how to apply this insight to your own business is to get the FREE Eureka.ai Growth Audit!

Just click the link below, submit your details and we will get in touch with the Eureka AI Growth Audit

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Message me at [email protected] if you are interested in how your competitors are performing in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand.

You can also connect with me on linkedin here Michael Hawkins

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