Kemenparekraf Together With OYO Develop Digital-Based Tourism Village

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Along with the huge potential for developing Tourism Villages in the current national tourism recovery period, the government through the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) and tourism industry players in this case OYO, is strengthening collaboration to optimize this potential, including in terms of lodging through digitalization.

As is known, tourism with a tourism concept that is friendlier to nature and local communities is increasingly becoming a trend for tourists, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

OYO, as a technology-based hospitality company, initiated a collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy and the local government to support acceleration in the development of Tourism Villages through digitalization.

The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, said he was optimistic about the collaboration, in order to support economic revival while opening up new job opportunities and business opportunities for the creative economy and accelerating the progress of village independence.

Sandiaga also invited industry players to jointly digitize through platforms, as part of the transformation and promotion of tourism destinations.

"The current tourism trend has shifted towards digital. Almost everything is done digitally. Let's digitize together as part of the transformation and promotion of tourism destinations through the platform. OYO is at the forefront of current tourism trends," he said in a written statement. received by VOI, Wednesday, March 2nd.

"We want to invite OYO and tourist villages to strengthen digitalization through digital use, not only selling online but also creating creative content," he continued.

On the same occasion, Country Head of OYO Hotels and Homes Indonesia Agus Hartono Wijaya said that as a player in the hospitality industry, OYO also sees digitalization as the key to accelerating the development of Tourism Villages.

"During the pandemic, we continue to follow changes in tourist preferences including exploring the various potential developments of this industry. We see that digitalization is increasingly taking on a dominant role in the current recovery period. In addition, consumer preferences are also increasingly turning to natural and local tourism," he explained.

Therefore, said Agus, armed with OYO's technological capabilities and market reach, he is optimistic that this collaboration will be able to accelerate the development of Tourism Villages which have a unique tourism concept.

"We also appreciate the support from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy and the local government to jointly open up new opportunities for regional economic growth and the recovery of the tourism industry in Indonesia," he said.

Furthermore, Agus said, this initiative also shows OYO's commitment to the Indonesian market, which is one of the priority markets for OYO globally. Agus also said that currently around 15 tourist villages have joined in 3 provinces in Indonesia.

"In the future, we will try to invite other tourist villages to digitize their area to restore tourism in Indonesia," said Agus.

Uniting the concept of local wisdom with technology

Agus said the uniqueness and local employees supported by the integration of technology and standardized services are the selling points of this tourist village concept.

Furthermore, Agus said OYO will also increase and transform lodging occupancy in tourist villages by standardizing service quality that is full of local wisdom.

At least, there are two superior OYO technologies that will be integrated in the Tourism Village. First, OYO OS as a hotel management system, such as bookings, revenue/trend reports, and live chat features.

"This system will really help Patrons or Tourism Village partners in managing their lodging more efficiently," he explained.

Second, Agus continued, Co-OYO is an application that makes it easy for OYO Patrons to manage business performance.

"In order to expand market reach, OYO has also collaborated with several Online Travel Agents (OTA) who work together on the OYO network to help market lodging rooms in Tourism Villages," he said.