ABBA, MCAS and PT Surprise Indonesia develop moslem travel platform

JAKARTA (IndoTelko) -- PT Mahaka Media Tbk (IDX: ABBA), PT M Cash Integrasi Tbk (IDX: MCAS), and PT Surprise Indonesia (Surprise) signed a three-party agreement for the development of Moslem Travel Platform in Indonesia.

In this collaboration, the development of the Moslem Travel Platform will focus on the network of Muslim communities managed by ABBA through Harian Republika, which is the first newspaper for the Muslim community in Indonesia, which was established in 1993.

As a technology company, MCAS serves as a platform provider that brings its strong digital infrastructure and a complete digital ecosystem into this collaboration with various synergies to be able to build an innovative and useful platform for the Muslim community.

Surprise itself is a part of the Smailing Tour Group and PT Distribusi Voucher Nusantara Tbk (IDX: DIVA) which offers B2B services for tour packages and as an agent for various recreational products, which will focus on Umrah travel in this cooperation. Surprise currently manages more than 1000 travel agents located in Jakarta, Java, and surrounding areas and as agent’s consolidator in Indonesia.

This Moslem Travel Platform is targeted to be released in the second quarter of 2022. Users will enjoy flexibility in setting Umrah travel schedules, with convenient personalization and the best prices in one application platform, starting from booking airline tickets, hotel reservations, transportation, travel agenda arrangements and all facilities in one hand only.

Adrian Syarkawi, President Director of ABBA, commented, "Innovation is the keyword to reinforce our commitment to present more value for people who are also readers of Republika Daily. Therefore, we collaborate with MCAS & Surprise to deliver a travel platform. The digital age makes us need to develop business models to stay at the forefront."

"The Umrah worship policy that the government has opened is predicted to increase the Umrah travel market, which has received full support from the Government of Saudi Arabia with plans to increase the quota of Umrah pilgrims from 8 million to 30 million by 2030", added Adrian

Mohammad Anis Yunianto, Director of MCAS, added, "MCAS is proud to be part of this Moslem Travel Platform development. In welcoming the new era post-Covid-19, we are committed to bringing relevant digital innovations to continue building a massive and leading digital infrastructure in Indonesia. With technology capabilities, a strong digital infrastructure, and a complete digital ecosystem, we are optimistic that we will present a unique platform compared to other similar platforms."

Bernard Akili, CEO of PT Surprise Indonesia, added, "We believe that this cooperation is one of the efforts to revive the travel business in Indonesia, especially Umrah travel. In 2019, Indonesian Umrah pilgrims had reached 1.2 million pilgrims, and Indonesia is the second-largest contributor of Umrah pilgrims globally. With the removal of quarantine obligations by the Saudi government, we can now be more flexible in regulating the departure of Umrah to the Holy Land. We are also committed to presenting Umrah packages at more affordable prices, where efficiency can be done because Umrah pilgrims can directly carry out worship activity without having to spend time on quarantine." (sar)