Singapore, 21 January 2009 – Interest in traveling among Singaporeans and Asians in general still remains despite the economic slowdown, according to recent data released by Wego.com. Asia’s fastest growing travel search engine has seen a remarkable 260% increase, year-on-year (period 1- 19 January) in travelers visiting the Wego site looking for the best travel deals.

In Singapore, where the company has been established since 2006, growth for the same period has been 128%.

“Given the economic climate, seasoned travelers and first-time travelers alike pause before taking a trip,” says Martin Symes, CEO of Wego. “However, the desire for travel remains and there are some real deals out there … if you know where to look. Now, more than ever, travelers should use a price comparison travel search site such as Wego”.

Wego allows online travel shoppers to search for flights, hotels and package deals across more than a hundred travel sites in the time that it takes to search just one. That means Wego can find the best product to buy and connect users to the best place to buy it in real time, within seconds.

“We do this by mirroring the real-time prices and availability shown on our partners’ sites at any point in time. Because Wego does the searching for the users, we maximize their chances of finding the best deals—providing users the opportunity to save both time and money”, says Symes.

Focus on short intra-regional trips

Wego’s data suggests that both Singapore outbound and inbound travelers are currently focusing on short, intra-regional trips. All but one of the destinations in the top 10 searched for by Singaporeans in January 2009 are within the Asia Pacific region. Similarly, those looking to travel to Singapore are exclusively from the region. (See Table A.)

Tips for travelers in an economic downturn

“Some would say that now is the best time to travel because prices are dropping and the travel and hospitality industries are offering a lot of good deals to woo travelers. It’s looking more and more like a ‘buyers’ market because travelers have more options,” says Symes. “You never know. That getaway you’ve been dreaming of could be just a click away!”

Wego shares some tips to finding the best travel deals.

1. Check prices often. Prices are adjusted on a daily basis – sometimes even every few hours – so if you’ve got your eye on a particular destination, remember that a good deal could come up anytime.
2. Always compare prices. To avoid wasting your time searching through numerous websites, be sure to use a comparative travel search engine like Wego.com. Wego has the ability to scan over 100 travel sites and enable you to compare rates for airlines, accommodations and packages. Even when you see an offer in a newspaper or hear of a good deal from a friend, you can always test how good the deal is by comparing it to others on Wego.
3. Be on the lookout for Deals. Online travel agencies will frequently offer flights at special rates. Make sure you are regularly monitoring a site that compiles these deals (such as www.wego.com/deals). Or better yet, sign up to receive alerts by email.
4. Think about currency and where you want to travel. For example, at the moment the Singapore dollar (SGD) is relatively strong, compared with six months ago, against the currencies of Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, the UK, Euro-zone and Canada. This makes visiting and shopping in these countries cheaper. On the other hand, the SGD has weakened against the currencies of Hong Kong, China, Japan, the US and Dubai, thus prices for travel products & services may be relatively more expensive at this time. Wego gives you the option of seeing prices in multiple currencies to make comparisons easy.

Still great Chinese New Year options available

There are still some great last minute fares available this year for Chinese New Year getaways. For example, searches on Wego yesterday showed the following examples; with many more available:

Jakarta – depart Fri 23rd Jan for 4 nights on Garuda $238
Bangkok – depart Sat 24th Jan for 4 nights on Indian Airlines $356
Hong Kong – depart Sat 24th Jan for 4 nights on Cathay Pacific $551
Bali – depart Sat 24th for 4 nights on Singapore Airlines $728
Macau – depart Sun 25th for 7 nights on JetstarAsia $556
Bali – depart Sun 25th for 7 Jan nights on Garuda $418

(all fares shown inclusive of taxes, surcharges and service fees and subject to availability at the time of booking).

Where do Singaporeans want to go?
Top 10 flight searches FROM Singapore (Jan 1-19, 2009)

Bangkok
Hong Kong
Denpasar (Bali)
Phuket
Kuala Lumpur
Taipei
Sydney
Melbourne
Manila
London

Who is interested in visiting Singapore?*
Top 10 flight searches from other destinations TO Singapore
(Jan 1-19, 2009)

Hong Kong
Manila
Sydney
Madras
Kuala Lumpur
Mumbai
Delhi
Bangkok
Melbourne
Jakarta

* Note that Wego’s business is currently focused on, and hence its results biased towards, the following markets: Singapore, Australia, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong

About Wego.com
Wego.com (formerly Bezurk.com) allows travelers to search for flights, hotels, packages, travel deals and travel research across 100+ travel websites in the time that it normally takes to search just one. Wego searches travel websites in real-time so that the latest pricing and availability are shown. Travelers are then linked through to partner websites to book. Wego.com was founded in 2005 by former executives from Intercontinental Hotels Group (NYSE: IHG), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) and ZUJI. News Digital Media, the Australian digital arm of News Limited and part of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), is an investor. In 2007, Business 2.0 magazine named Bezurk as one of “31 of the world’s hottest international web startups”. For more information, please visit http://www.wego.com/about.

For Wego.com photos, logos and screen grabs: www.wego.com/mediakit

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 3:21 am and is filed under Wego News & PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.