Online Travel’s Localization Quandary


Skift Take

Traveloka knows how to go local in Indonesia and some other countries in the region, and that's one element of its traction in these markets. But can local ever be too local when online travel agencies mull international expansion?
Series: Dennis' Online Travel Briefing

Dennis' Online Travel Briefing

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, Executive Editor and online travel rockstar Dennis Schaal will bring readers exclusive reporting and insight into the business of online travel and digital booking, and how this sector has an impact across the travel industry.
Online Travel This Week Go deep and get more local, or go wide and expand geographically? That's an interesting quandary for online travel companies of every type in their various stages of development. It definitely has something to do with Booking.com's multiyear push to develop its own payments' platform, and will certainly bear on Traveloka's quest to gain a stronger foothold in additional countries in Southeast Asia as it attempts to go public through a blank check company merger. Skift Research's Varsha Arora took a look at the issue in a new report, Online Travel Agency Landscape 2021: Southeast Asia. Indonesia's homegrown Traveloka is the leading player in that country, with Booking Holdings sister companies Agoda, based in Singapore, and Booking.com, headquartered in Amsterdam, ra