CEO & founder Hans Ebenhahn said the site’s objective is “take the hassle out of planning business and/or leisure trips by providing a full online travel solution, bringing all travel products in one place for travellers to choose and compare, and also inspire them to explore new destinations”.

NusaTrip.com offers flight search and booking from over 460 airlines in Indonesia and overseas, and over 100,000 hotels, as well as a local payment solution comprising ATM payment, online banking and credit card.

Current online plays are more focused on domestic travel.

Its major investor is GLB group (PT Gema Lintas Benua), a diversified group of companies with interests in telecommunication, energy, e-commerce, EPC and property. “Beyond the obvious cash funding, it is quite a strategic group for our business. The GLB Group offers us leverage that helps us keep our operation burn rate low, open many doors and connect us with strategic partners.”

According to Ebenhahn, the two hardest problems to crack were, not surprisingly, payment and airline integration. “Unlike mature markets where credit card is the only payment method used, credit card penetration is very low so we have to support basic banking interfaces like ATM or online solutions that banks have built. There are many banks to work with and so far no real payment gateways.

“Airline integration is also a challenge. Most airlines are more focused on growth and distribution technology is not a high priority. Most of them use different custom-built solutions and seem to be changing them quite frequently.”

To build the brand, NusaTrip will spread marketing between traditional online advertising, social media activities, partnerships, special promotions and some offline advertising “when it makes sense”. “For the moment our focus is online where we can get the most efficient targeting on consumers ready to buy hotel and flight online.”

He said NusaTrip would have to balance its efforts between customer acquisition and customer education (about the OTA model and how we can make travel planning and booking easier and cheaper). “This is because some consumers are still not aware that all airlines can now be compared online. We also have to build trust from customers for online solutions.”

Differentiation from other online travel players will come from its product and user experience. “We are the only travel agent in Indonesia to provide online instant booking for all international airlines and most domestic airlines. Without NusaTrip, it would be very complicated and time consuming to find the best price for a Yogyakarta-Milan flight online. We also offer Indonesia domestic flights, making it easier to find which airline flies to a given route and at what prices.

“We have also spent a lot of time designing the user experience with friendly interfaces and making sure that the booking process flow makes booking online simple. This is very important if you consider that most online travel users are new to e-commerce in general. We believe that having a good first experience is key to the growth of the online market in general.”

It also wants to build a positive brand image among travellers with “consumer friendly pricing practices”.

“We have a no hidden cost policy on the site. All prices are all inclusive, users can buy on our website in confidence, knowing that the price they see is the price they will have to pay, and nothing more. The global online travel market is quite competitive, thus, many players tend to use “hidden” pricing practices when they sell in Asian countries.

“Furthermore, the promise of online travel is that people can buy flights and hotels anywhere, anytime. In Indonesia, being a vast archipelago, where online payment is slowly becoming a reality, we believe it is key to offer 24/7 ATM payment to our users (with near instant e-ticket or voucher issuance). 

“Very few e-commerce players offer this service. We support ATM payment with 77 banks in Indonesia, including banks that have ATM in medium and small villages all around Indonesia.

“We have a lot more features we will roll out over time, with always the goal of making travel planning easier and more convenient.”

The name NusaTrip comes from “Nusa” which is short for Nusantara, or archipelago in English. “Indonesia as a country is the biggest archipelago, with over 17,000 islands but for most Indonesians, Nusantata is also a synonym to their country, from Sabang (Aceh) to Merauke (Papua).

“So you could interpret the name as a short form for Indonesia Travel. It’s easy to pronounce in both Bahasa Indonesia and English. We believe it will help associate online travel with NusaTrip in people’s mind.”

Ebenhahn saw the opportunity for a full service OTA when he first started working in Indonesia. “After trying to figure out why, I understood that the market was not easy and it was ready for OTAs only recently. Indonesia is not your typical travel market.”

With a background is e-commerce start-ups, specializing in product, marketing and strategy and an interest in technology – his first job was at a leading e-commerce marketplace start-up in Europe, which got acquired by eBay – his personal objective was to find his own project at some point. “I have a lot of energy and like to solve problems.”

As to whether he’s the best person to run what he calls Indonesia’s first full OTA, he said, “Only time will tell, but this company is a team effort, everybody brings their knowledge, expertise and talent to build a great online travel agency.”

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