Treya invites travellers to explore Indonesia on open trips

• An online marketplace for open and private trips
• Has 200 users and over 100 trip organisers to 50 destinations

INDONESIA-based Treya, is an online marketplace for open and private trips in the country, that connects trip organisers (TOs) and travellers.

An open trip is a way of travelling in a group with people who may not know each other. Open trips are cheaper than solo vacations or private trips.

Treya chief executive officer Arie Nasution says that open trips are now a trend among young travellers, but they have difficulties in selecting and comparing TOs, in terms of price, time, and destinations.

Treya provides various choices according to the needs of each community, with the aim of promoting Indonesian vacation spots that have not been reached by the wider community and helping the local economy.

He points out that some TOs have not optimised the use of online tools yet, and are only able to make simple websites that are not convincing enough to attract customers.

“Other than that, fraud in open trips also happens, and some travellers might find difficulties in making payment.”

Officially launched in January 2018, this platform now has 200 users, with more than 100 TOs (entities and individual) in 50 destinations across 34 provinces in Indonesia. It also received undisclosed funding from angel investors.

Users are able to book their trip through its website treya.io or mobile app (available in Android), pick destinations and preferred dates. Once the quota of people is reached, the open trip will commence.

The number of travellers on a trip depends on the destination and ranges between 11 and 25 per group. If more people are keen on a particular trip, the system will move them another TOs.

Arie explains that he tries to standardise the pricing and quality of accommodation for trips by connecting closely with local people as the company can make deal to cut down the price.

He also says that Treya is selective of TOs on its platform to ensure security and guarantee satisfaction.

“We verify our TOs through our algorithm, by references ftom fellow TOs, and user ratings on the platform. Our users can efficiently pick the destination, date, and communicate with TOs through the platform.”

Treya also provides various payment gateways such as bank transfer, instalment, and credit card to the company’s account to avoid fraud.

He adds that Treya generates revenue by commission, which is 10% on average per trip and targets to acquire more TOs and add up to 100 destinations by next year.

“We help the TOs from the side of technology, administration, and marketing, so they can focus on the service quality.”

Treya is working with Bank Mandiri and Wardah Beauty to present a programme called “See the Unseen of Indonesia”, that invites users to travel to four destinations (Dieng, Banyuwangi, Bromo, and Belitung) with four travel bloggers in August 2018.

"Through this programme, we hope we are able to show the public that Indonesian tourist destinations are fun and interesting. In the future we aim to have a role in supporting the tourism industry in Indonesia.”

In terms of digitalisation in the local tourism sector, he admits that it is still early, and more players need to work together to promote local tourism.

Indonesian Ministry of Tourism head of development acceleration for priority tourist destinations Hiramsyah Thaib says that the government is focusing on promoting local tourism spots and it is important for players to collaborate.

“We support the startups that help to connect and enable people to travel, and we realise that technology plays an important part. Therefore, we support the younger generation in bringing in innovation.”

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