Agreement is to promote 15 Key Travel Destinations in Indonesia           

SINGAPORE, Oct. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Brand Expedia, the world's leading full-service online travel brand, and the Ministry of Tourism, Republic of Indonesia have joined forces to promote and help drive travel demand to 15 key destinations in Indonesia. The first agreement involves a three-month digital marketing contract with Expedia Group Media Solutions to promote travellers to Indonesia under the Wonderful Indonesia 2018 Campaign, while the second allows visitors to book trips to Indonesia on the Ministry of Tourism's www.indonesia.travel website via Brand Expedia sites in Singapore, Korea and Japan through an Application Programming Interface (API) agreement. 

Mr Arief Yahya, Minister of Tourism, Republic of Indonesia (left) and Mr Greg Schulze, Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy and Service, Expedia Group (right), sealing the cooperation to promote 15 key destinations in Indonesia. 

Both agreements leverage Brand Expedia's global reach with travel booking websites in 40 countries around the world. The Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia also aims to increase the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia, to support its target of achieving 17 million international tourist arrivals by the end of 2018. 

Spanning a period of 12 months, the API agreement between Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism and Brand Expedia will (i) focus on attracting visitors from 45 key cities across 18 target markets including Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Australia (ii) link potential travellers to Expedia via strategically-placed ad units on the www.indonesia.travel website. This will enable international travellers to take advantage of a wider variety of travel booking options, including flight selections from more than 500 airlines and access to more than 750,000 properties, to cater to the differing needs of modern travellers. Additionally, Brand Expedia will provide discounts and promotions for travel to Indonesia, to help boost international tourist arrivals to these key destinations. Besides Jakarta and Bali, these destinations include Lake Toba, Lombok, Bandung, Banyuwangi and Labuan Bajo. 

"By having Expedia as our media partner, we are confident to achieve those targets. As the largest and internationally well-known travel service provider, as well as its popularity and highly acclaimed reputation worldwide, we are convinced that Expedia will help us to promote our destination to a wider market audience, both regionally and globally. We also hope that through this partnership, we are able to increase number of leads from Indonesia travel website, as well its conversion in Expedia platform," said Arief Yahya, Minister of Tourism, Republic of Indonesia. 

"We're delighted to join forces with the Ministry of Tourism of Republic of Indonesia on this important initiative to drive international tourist arrivals to the Indonesia's key destinations. Expedia's vast global network, and deep travel expertise in each of the local markets we operate in puts us in a good position to help travellers find the right options for a great travel experience. Not only will travellers be able to benefit from the wide variety of deals available across Brand Expedia websites, the user-friendly experience and ease of booking on our sites will also encourage travellers to book their travel to visit beautiful Indonesia," said Greg Schulze, Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy and Services, Expedia Group. 

Today's announcement highlights Expedia's commitment towards our cooperation and close relationship with Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism. We hope that Expedia will continue to play a key role in advancing Indonesia's tourism ambitions, including Jokowi's 10 New Balis growth strategy," said Ang Choo Pin, Senior Director, Government and Corporate Affairs Asia, Expedia Group.