More US customers searching for Lombok: Wego

LOMBOK is currently trending across all Wego’s travel metasearch sites around the world, but growing fastest in the US.

Search volumes for Bali’s neighbouring island have jumped over 40 per cent year-to-date, compared with the same period in 2011, with one in every five searches made by American Wego.com users.

The trend matches the tourist arrivals captured by the Department of Culture and Tourism, West Nusa Tenggara, measuring 36 per cent uplift for Lombok in the first half of 2012, compared to 2011. Total visitor numbers to Lombok from January to June 2012 reached almost 500,000.

Indonesian travellers still dominate, but international visitors outpaced the average at 47 per cent for the same period last year. Over half of the users of Wego's 52 country sites searching Lombok were using the local Indonesian site, wego.co.id, with the remainder consisting predominantly of travellers from Singapore, Australia and Malaysia.

"We’re seeing a trend that both domestic travellers and international visitors are discovering new destinations in Indonesia," explained Graham Hills, managing director, Wego Indonesia.

"Bali may be the most frequently searched, but Lombok is rapidly closing the gap. The destination’s increased accessibility and recently opened international airport will only encourage more visitors and support the expansion of its hospitality sector.”

Sourced: TTG Asia