Amid the rise of new travel-related online services, major travel agencies face greater challenges to come first in travelers’ minds. 

In a bid to offer something different to its customers, Smailing Tour, which has been around for 43 years, introduced a new brand "Smailing Xperiences" on Monday as part of its tourist packages and services.

"Our keyword is to listen to what our customers want, not what we want. Because today's travel agencies are not about knowing everything, but listening to the market and learning from them," Jason Lim, the CEO of Smailing Tour's leisure outbound and DMC, told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the brand's launch.

Planned a couple of months ago, Smailing Xperiences boasts "extraordinary" products and services that are categorized based on special interests and segments and available at flexible times and dates.

"Sydney with a twist", for instance, targets the family segment and offers experiences like the three-hour Sydney Opera House guided backstage tour. "Contrasts of Dubai" caters to culture enthusiasts with activities like a three-hour authentic Emirate cultural meal and talk in Old Dubai. "Frames of Hong Kong" boasts access to back alleys and places only known to locals with experiences like the four-hour tour with a professional photographer and three-hour Ping Shan Heritage Trail Polaroid workshop. "Osaka foodie Xperiences" takes tourists on a four-hour Osaka bar and pub crawl, three-hour foodie bike tour and three-hour teppanyaki wagyu cooking experience. Meanwhile "Tokyo foodie Xperiences" invites travelers to enjoy experiences like the four-hour Shibuya bar crawl and four-hour home-cooked bento lesson in local Japanese homes.

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"[These aforementioned destinations] are already available [for our customers]. As we want to launch this slowly, step by step, we will continue to tweak the products after launching them and listen to the market's response in order to enhance the Xperiences," said Jason, adding that travelers to Japan can also expect to enjoy experiences like Mario Karting on the streets of Tokyo.

"We aim to provide products that are currently popular. We arrange times so you can easily mix-and-match different Xperiences. [The ones listed] are only examples of what you can do; we can also customize them so you can do more or fewer activities than what we offer."

Other than abroad, the company also offers domestic Xperiences such as interacting with orangutans in Mount Leuser National Park's Bukit Lawang in Sumatra as well as trips to Bali, Yogyakarta, Bangka Belitung and Batam.

All the Xperiences are available for all types of customers, from individuals to tour groups -- the latter of which is still a huge market for the company. 

"Many of [our customers] are first-time travelers; that's why they travel with a group. But there's also a growing number of millennials and professionals who want the adventure of not knowing what will happen tomorrow; they usually book with us when they're looking for specific experiences," said Jason, adding that in the past year the company's customized travelers accounted for close to 30-40 percent.

Mostly catering to Indonesian customers, Jason said that among the most popular destinations currently were Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. 

"Japan and South Korea are also always exciting, usually very seasonal such as cherry blossoms. Europe and Dubai are also [popular destinations]; sometimes we do a mix like transit in Dubai for a couple of days."

Meanwhile, among the emerging destinations are said to be Eastern Europe and Central Asia. "We are currently preparing products for Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Georgia."

For the company, highlighting content-driven communication is key to reaching potential customers.

"[Promotion] is no longer about putting up posters saying 'five days four nights tour priced at Rp 5 million'; we must tell them what's special [about the destinations]. We still put up posters but also provide videos of them that can be seen using virtual reality headsets [in some retail points] to let our travelers see the destinations before they go," said Jason.

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