JAKARTA, 24 January 2024: WebBeds, a B2B accommodation provider, has staged two “speed dating” events in Indonesia that put the country’s top travel buyers in direct contact with leading hoteliers from Singapore and Malaysia.
The two events hosted at Pullman Jakarta Central Park on 16 January and at DoubleTree by Hilton Surabaya on 18 January were in response to the latest insights from WedBeds’ booking data, which underlined the importance of Indonesia as a key source market for Singapore and Malaysia.
According to WebBeds, in 2023, Indonesia accounted for nearly 15% of business at Singapore’s hotels and experienced a more than 50% year-on-year growth for Malaysian hotels. Within these totals, arrivals from Jakarta and Surabaya comprised more than 75% of Indonesian visitors.
WebBeds is empowering hoteliers in Singapore and Malaysia to maximise the opportunities presented by the all-important Indonesian source market by organising these two events in Jakarta and Surabaya in partnership with Tourism Malaysia and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
Each event followed the same fast-paced, high-energy format. Representatives from 38 hotels, resorts and hospitality companies in Singapore and Malaysia met face-to-face with top Indonesian travel agencies in a round-robin format. Like speed dating, every buyer could meet every hotel, ensuring all attendees found their perfect match. Tourism Malaysia and WebBeds also gave informative presentations to delegates, allowing guests to learn about each destination’s latest updates and attractions.
“We are delighted to kickstart 2024 with these two exciting and important events. With its proximity, shared cultural links and strong connectivity, Indonesia has always been an important source market for Singaporean and Malaysian hotels. These connections will become even more important in the coming years as rising intra-ASEAN travel drives demand. We are happy to be able to use our business intelligence to identify major booking flows and to empower our partners to capitalise on these trends,” said WebBeds senior vice president of sourcing APAC Cyndi Ng.
“This is a good initiative by WebBeds and a great opportunity for Malaysia to engage with the industry and to share with them the various plans and updates for the year towards Visit Malaysia 2026,” commented Tourism Malaysia’s senior deputy director, international promotions division (ASEAN), Jamilah Abdul Halim.
“Indonesia is an important market for Malaysia. With the market showing significant growth in the arrivals in 2023, we hope we can achieve the pre-pandemic performance this year,” she added.
