ONCE a leading outbound travel company in the Netherlands, Oad Reizen declared bankruptcy on Wednesday to the surprise of Indonesia’s inbound operators and hoteliers.
A source at Asialink Holidays Indonesia, Oad’s groundhandling operator here, declined to be named but said the dramatic turn of events was “shocking”.
“We have seen inbound volume (from the Netherlands) to Indonesia decrease in the last couple of years as a result of the crisis in Europe…(but) we never had any problems with Oad’s payments to us, while bookings and arrival schedules were normal,” said the source.
Asialink Holidays has seen between 8,000 and 10,000 arrivals during the last couple of years and currently handles 300 travellers in Indonesia, including a batch that departed on the day the Dutch company announced its bankruptcy.
An established and leading travel company in The Netherlands that has been on the travel scene since 1924, Oad’s outbound operations sent tour groups to some 60 countries across the world, including Bali and other Indonesian destinations.
Apart from a dedicated groundhandling operator, Oad has direct contracts with many hotels in Indonesia, with Aerowisata Hotels & Resorts as one of the company’s biggest partners.
Aerowisata’s executive vice president hotel and resort, Francis Dehnhardt, said: “It is so sad that (the bankruptcy) has to happen.
“We have had a long partnership with them and they used to be our biggest source (of tourists from the Dutch market) until about 18 months ago, when we started seeing their traveller volume decrease while some other travel companies’ volumes increased.
“Although we did not have issues with payments with them, we had also heard of their financial difficulties, so we started to reduce our direct business with Oad and work with bona fide local consultants and OTAs, and channel direct bookings to our website.”
Dehnhardt said that although Oad’s outstanding bill is quite significant, it is not damaging the company. “I cannot imagine what would have happened to our hotels if we had not had taken the precautions earlier. I would have been fired for sure,” he quipped.
