INDONESIAN and Malaysian outbound tour operators are seeing a shift in travel patterns due to their weakened currencies.
The Indonesian rupiah has dipped against the USD since end-May from 9,817 rupiah (0.90) to 11,300 to-date.
While the upper middle class travellers are unfazed by the rupiah’s depreciation and continue to favour Europe, operators interviewed said the middle class is either shifting destinations or shortening their travel duration.
Travel executives expect business would be challenging next year. GTA Indonesia FIT country manager Andreas Sulaeman said: “The Lebaran holiday next year is back to back with the school holiday (July) so there will be one peak season instead of two separate ones.
“Secondly, with the general and presidential elections, travellers may want to wait-and-see; if the currency still fluctuates, they may be more cautious in spending.”
To keep the business afloat, tour operators said they will be offering attractive products by teaming up with airlines, cruise companies, overseas NTOs as well as banks in Indonesia, as they have been doing this year.
Meetings and incentives are also impacted. MICE agencies such as Panorama Tours managing director – Corporate Incentive Management, Vidya Hermanto, said: “Some of our clients actually have postponed their incentive programmes till early next year.”
In Malaysia, promotional airfares to Europe are helping to mitigate the impact of the weaker ringgit on longhaul travel. Carol Sum, senior operations manager, Parlo Tours Malaysia, expects a 20 per cent increase to Central Europe and 30 per cent increase to Scandinavia and Eastern Europe in the second half of this year.
Similarly, Cooper Huang, CEO of Malaysian Harmony Tours & Travel, said packages to Central and Eastern Europe are expected to increase 25-30 per cent right up to June 2014, thanks to promotional airfares.
Additional reporting by S Puvaneswary
