THREE competing tour operators in Indonesia are putting aside their rivalry to grab a share of the country’s emerging online market.
The Panorama Group, Dwidaya Tour and Travel, and Smailing Tours have formed Raja Kamar International and has hired former ZUJI CEO, Scott Blume, as group CEO, effective November 1.
Their first roll-out is Raja Kamar Indonesia. Rajakamar.com, which literally translates to “king of rooms” in Bahasa, aims to be the number one B2C online hotel booking channel with the largest inventory of Indonesia hotels, selling primarily to Indonesian consumers.
Panorama’s Satrijanto Tirtawisata, who is Raja Kamar International’s president, said more hotel rooms were opening in secondary and tertiary cities throughout Indonesia.
This, along with Internet access and “phenomenal” growth in the number of mobile phone users, made online hotel booking an “obvious” form of distribution for hotels, he said.
The initial target for is to be among the top three sellers of hotel roomnights in Indonesia in the next four months. The next goal, said Blume, was to take the learnings in Indonesia to the neighbouring Asian markets.
Within a year, Raja Kamar International is expected to spread its wings to the region, be it in the form of joint ventures or strategic alliance partners.
Quizzed on why Panorama decided to go to bed with rivals, Satrijanto said in this instance, it was more effective for the three tour operators to combine resources than compete. They would also remain neutral and not elbow their inventory through to Rajakamar.com.
– Read more in ITB Asia 2011 Official Daily – Day 2 issue
