THE EUROZONE crisis is not all bad news for Asian tour operators, at least not for Indonesia’s Pacto, which has managed to secure two accounts from Italy and Spain.
Pacto has been appointed groundhandler for Italy’s Mistral and started taking care of its Indonesia-bound customers last December.
Beginning March, Pacto will also be handling clients belonging to La Cuarta Isla, a member of Mallorca-based travel company Barcelo Viazes, which is entering the Indonesian market for the first time.
Pacto president director Ratna Ning said: “It might sound against odds, but it shows that (European) people still travel, and they travel here (to Indonesia).”
While unable to provide details about target passenger numbers from both partners this year, Pacto business development director Umberto Cadamuro said the Italian travellers, consisting mainly of incentive groups and FITs, were not only on the lookout for Bali holidays, but were also interested in areas such as Nusa Tenggara, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.
Customers from the Spanish operator, on the other hand, were mostly high-end FITs on Jakarta-Jogjakarta-Bali overland tours, he said.
