Traveloka, the Indonesia-based travel booking site, has launched the Traveloka Xperience in Thailand, the first country in Southeast Asia to receive the new service.
Thailand is Traveloka's second-largest market, just behind Indonesia, in offering a wide range of more than 15,000 travel and lifestyle activities in 300 destinations on one booking platform.
Available as a feature in the Traveloka app, the Xperience features 11 different types of activities for travellers to select, comprising attractions, tours, beauty and spa, events, entertainment, sports, playgrounds, transport, travel essentials, food and drink, and classes and workshops.
Sylvia Gunawan, Traveloka Xperience's vice-president for revenue and growth, said that because most millennials prefer spending time and money on experience rather than consuming products, the new feature is able to offer seamless travel services for both users who would love to discover new travel experiences and local tourist operators.
The launch of Xperience aims to tackle the challenges surrounding e-reservations for travel and tourism products, due to a lack of credibility among service providers and too many options for clients.
"We've provided solutions for reducing offline operations, such as the process of buying theme park tickets on online platforms, while connecting tourists with trustworthy operators to create more credibility in the tourism industry," Ms Gunawan said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Tee Chayakul, country manager of Traveloka Thailand, said that despite similar applications offered by other online travel agencies (OTAs), he is confident that the Traveloka Xperience feature is different.
"The Southeast Asian region is the main focus, as well as Traveloka's strong point, because we understand users and are able to provide tailor-made applications that meet their demands," he said.
He believes that other OTAs are looking to shift their focus to big markets or worldwide.
"In the future, we would like to promote more second-tier provinces to help support and contribute income to local operators as well," Mr Tee said.
Traveloka launched a flight reservation feature in 2013 and added hotel reservations in 2014. Adding train tickets and food features in 2017 was part of the company's continued development.
Traveloka has 35 million active users in seven countries: Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.