dimalang.com is a travel guide for people coming to Malang, in East Java. It publishes guides to places worth the trip, along with news on destinations and other stories from the travel world.
We started the site when almost no digital outlet was covering tourism in this region. We drove a double-cab pickup to beaches, mountains, waterfalls, and hidden corners of Malang, filmed the trips, and posted them. Travelers used those videos when they were looking for a new place to go. We started early enough to become one of the pioneers of digital tourism media in Indonesia.
The audience grew, and we began inviting public figures to introduce Malang with us. The campaigns showed Malang as a creative, modern place to visit. We cover food on the site too. The pieces look at the flavors and the stories behind what “Arek Ngalam” eat. (“Arek Ngalam” is what people from Malang call themselves). That coverage led to a citywide food event, where cooks, local communities, and residents met.
During the pandemic, we shifted from travel reporting to direct help. We raised donations and supplied hundreds of oxygen tanks, which were hard to find. Residents who needed a tank could borrow one for free. After the pandemic eased, we gave all of the tanks to hospitals in Malang.
dimalang.com is now the largest tourism outlet in Greater Malang, the city and the area around it. Visitors and residents use it to decide where to go. Local and national brands also join the reporting, in stories about places, daily life, and culture in Malang.