I was there to speak at a Wired Women Weekend event and instead of imparting what little I know, I ended up learning a whole lot more about one of Asia’s hottest emerging markets, digital or otherwise. Seriously, Indonesia’s the country that saved Singapore and Blackberry.

It is Singapore’s largest market in terms of visitor numbers and expenditure. Of the 13.2 million arrivals to Singapore in 2011, Indonesia contributed 2,592,000 arrivals. Of tourism receipts of S$22.2 billion earned in 2011, 20% went on shopping – and you can bet that the bulk of spending came from Indonesians without whom Singapore’s shops (and theatres, restaurants and hospitals) would be poorer. This is something I don’t understand of course.

Why shop in Singapore when the malls in Jakarta are as good, if not larger and better? I mean this mall I was at, fx lifestyle X’nter (just the name says it), had all the brands I was familiar with and more. (The conference, at which I was speaking, was held in The Only One Club, a private venue popular for brand launches and private parties.)

I guess that’s what makes the women’s market (the majority of shoppers) so interesting – logic seldom applies – and so attractive to marketers because this is a market driven by impulse, aspirations and, increasingly, affluence as a whole swathe of womanhood in Asia joins the workforce and rises up the executive and entrepreneurial ranks. Increasingly it is a market that’s heavily influenced by the digital world.

Of the 100 million Internet users in Indonesia (by 2015), 30% are female and half of them access via mobile devices, according to a presentation given by Erika Oktora, online sales manager, Google Asia Pacific. And Indonesians spend more time on the Internet than on other activities such as TV, magazines/newspapers and radio – 71% are on it daily, spending up to 35 hours a week. (Netpop Indonesia Consumer Insights June 2010) What they do on the Internet – 13 million searches a month on Google, 26 million views on YouTube and watch 17.6 million baby videos.

Up to 36% of smartphone users in the country are women. Indonesia is also “social media nation”, said a friend working there. “They love their Blackberries and their forums.”

And if you accept that women are the better social networkers, then you can surmise that this has become an increasingly important area of influence for women. On my part, I spoke about women in travel because I honestly believe that the digital world has not only liberated women as entrepreneurs but also as travellers.

Take me as an example, I run a virtual business and I can work from anywhere in the world where there is connectivity. I have worked at the end of a pier in Marlborough, New Zealand, with stingrays and dolphins swimming under me or a café in Luang Prabang, Laos during Songkran where the only danger was getting my devices wet from the festivities.

Because I am able to run my business on my own terms and time, I am able to have the time and resources to travel as and when I wish to. And voila, here come low cost airlines which have liberated us to book and fly, often at the last minute, on impulse. I believe I am not alone in this new-found independence.

Throughout South-east Asia, and now increasingly North Asia, travellers are being liberated – by two forces, the democracy of the web and the mushrooming of low cost airlines. And women are the biggest beneficiaries. True, we can no longer travel light what with all the sexy devices we have to carry but since the majority of travel decisions are made by women (I read that 75% of all travel decisions globally are made by women ages 40 & over), then the web has truly opened up a world of possibilities for women.

Wego’s new CEO Ross Veitch told me this morning traffic to his site is heavily skewed towards women – 55%. And data gathered by his travel search site shows that women make the majority of decisions in travel, whether planning or booking. Of course, we also know that women are the rocket fuel of e-commerce in most other sectors – sites like Groupon would be nowhere without the feminine impulse to snap up deals, the way we buy shoes and handbags.

Then take social networks – study after study shows the mastery of women in this space – like this one – and it didn’t take long for someone to figure out that women simple adore Pinterest, the newest kid in crowd sourcing town – women make up about 82% of active users on Pinterest, according to Google Ad Planner, according to this report.

And we use it not only to socialize but in business. An American Express Survey 2011 survey in Australia in 2011 said that female business owners are twice likely to use Facebook as communication tool to generate sales. As for how women shop for travel online, well, it seems we shop online like we do offline.

Here’s what Dan Lynn, managing director of Expedia AirAsia, told me, “When booking a hotel, women leisure travellers are much more likely to seek recommendations from a friend or her family, as well as leverage UGC reviews. “Similarly, women business travellers are also likely to leverage recommendations from their organisation as well as UGC reviews. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to use search engines and travel sites for hotel information.” This seems to reflect the universal truth in the difference between how women and men shop.

To prepare for my Jakarta presentation, I also asked Experian Hitwise to dig up some data on travel websites visited by men and women and they produced these charts for Australia and China. (Thank you, Experian Hitwise)

Have to say, this Jakarta gig was good dress rehearsal for the first WITX-Women In Travel we are running in Bangkok on April 27. Expect more insights to be shared into this huge and important travel market at our one-day event. See programme here. Also pleased to report that our event is being supported by the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau and Girls In Tech, which has started a Singapore chapter.