Hasiyanna Ashadi
GROWING interest from Indonesian tourism stakeholders to attract domestic travellers have prompted the Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) Jakarta Chapter to organise its own travel mart.
The ASITA Jakarta Travel Mart (AJTM) 2016, a B2B table-top event held yesterday, saw 108 travel related companies from 24 cities and provinces in Indonesia selling their products to buyers who came from some 200 travel companies in Jakarta.
Hasiyanna Ashadi, chairman of ASITA Jakarta, said: “There are now many regional tourism offices doing roadshows to Jakarta. Each of them come at different times and request to meet with 20, 30, or 50 ASITA Jakarta members.
“This got us to organise a travel mart with a focus on domestic travel. We invite our members in the region to come as sellers and meet not only with a small number of buyers but hundreds of them.”
Pauline Suharno, executive committee member of ASITA Jakarta, said the growing interest to travel within the country did not only come from leisure travellers but also incentive groups.
Unlike other travel marts and fairs in Indonesia which are usually dominated by hotels and airlines, AJTM 2016 offered a greater variety ranging from car and bus rental to online solutions, souvenirs, training centres and financial products.
Said Pauline: “We have invited these different suppliers to facilitate our members with information and products that they can use to upgrade not just sellable products, but also for their own capacity building.
“We hear their concerns over the growth of OTAs consuming their business. We want to convince them that there is more they can do than just sell tickets and that there are products and services in the market that can help them.”
LIA Foundation, a language training centre, for example, has six-month courses for tour leaders and guides, offered in English and Mandarin.
Meanwhile, Permata Bank offers payment solutions especially for offline travel companies and those wanting to enter the online business.
“Some 70 per cent of Indonesian travellers use debit cards to pay for their travel products and our payment channel allows debit card payments from all banks in Indonesia,” said Sofyan, sales manager e-channel business & payment solution of Permata Bank.
“A small or new startup with limited IT infrastructure can still use our service through payment gateway partners like DOKU, Veritrans or FirstPay,” he added.
