Trusted Tourism Business: Sharing Values, Bringing Business Opportunities and Market Access Closer to Communities

Abstract

Triptrus.com is an online marketplace established in 2013 that aims to provide a space, which brings trip operators closer to consumers. The business is the expansion of Limabit.com, the IT Company that has become the main support of Triptrus.com. We promote travelling packages that focus on budget trips, but offer unique and adventurous experiences. The main target market is the youth group with extensive interest in travel and adventure. The business requires a network to create trip packages. Local resources are the focus of our business partnerships. Each party has a role in the travelling business. We empower local communities to provide innovative concepts to answer the basic demands of travellers. We work closely with the local communities that can provide solutions in the provision of accommodation and food; we also work closely with local governments to provide support in the long-term sustainability of the tourism business. We also expand our partnerships with government tourism agencies and civil society organizations. We encourage young entrepreneurs to take on roles as tour operators in their particular areas and we provide them with basic training. The values of the business include social benefits and environmental benefits, as well as financial benefits.

Why are we involved in the tourism business?

For almost two decades, we have been running an IT business focusing on e-education programming and establishing a network & database system. Over the years, technology has evolved significantly as well as the social media. People’s travelling behavior has changed. Travelling and photography have become de rigueur for young people; a trend. Those who travel use online media platforms to tell their stories. Demand for various types of travelling packages is growing. Tour operators are growing significantly. However, they have limited skills and knowledge in creating travelling package, and they do not have easy access to markets. Many trip operators survive for short periods and quickly fail and then jump to another business. Looking at the trends, TripTrus.com analyzed them and created a network. We empowered operators with travel packaging skills and bring markets closer to them.

Low cost airlines, inevitably, contribute to the tourism industry growth. However, the full market potential for domestic tourism remains untapped due to: a) lack of understanding of local tour operators with regard to the tourism potential of the land, and, b) lack of knowledge and skills in developing travelling packages.

Indonesia is home for nearly 250 million people. It is a huge market. In many places, even though there may be stunning scenery, the local communities live in poor conditions. Despite the fact that Indonesia is one of the fastest developing countries in the South East Asia region, there continues to be disparity in the pace of development. The GINI ratio on the national scale is 0.41. Inequality is seen in access to education, health, and basic infrastructure such as water, sanitation, and electricity. People in different regions have different lifestyles and standards of living. Small islands or districts that are far from central government often have inadequate infrastructure, are economically challenged, and have low skills in the workforce. Younger generations have to migrate to cities or even abroad for employment. A comprehensive effort is needed to improve inequality.

Having transferred capacity from the IT business, we wanted to create a space where we could bring markets closer to trip operators and consumers. Bringing people to experience new destinations, despite the fact that those locations are often lacking in facilities is another challenge, yet it will bring economic opportunities. We want to build consumer behavior to enable travel with less cost, use of local facilities, and still give them great experiences. The concept also provides an opportunity for the local people to be part of the tourism business as trip/travel entrepreneurs, and open local businesses that cater for food and accommodation. All of this requires transfer of knowledge and capacity.

What is our business concept?

Building tourism business model:

Create Segment

Having observed different tourism markets, we have identified options for targeting and promoting eco-tourism, adventure tourism, and family-vacation tourism packages. We utilize online platforms as our base market. Having selected the traveller segment, we create travel packages that accommodate different experiences and expectations of the travellers. We continue to use social media as the platform to promote the package and create online communities. In Indonesia, more than 70% of the domestic market is based in Jakarta and surrounding cities (Java Island).

Define Motivation

We want to be part of the problem solving. We established a system to grow demand and trends in the tourism business. We also realize that opening new destinations will only meet the demands of selected travellers due to limitations in infrastructure, inadequate facilities, and limited skills of tour guides. We analyzed consumer behavior, which includes time limits (time to travel), price, accommodation, and expectations. Based on that we created package and travelling trends. As the business grows we face different challenges in providing services to consumers. We want to offer special products; low cost travelling, unique places, and adventurous journeys.

Build networks and partnerships

To meet the expectation of growing tourism business demand, we gathered tour operators from different tourist destinations. We also invited new people to be a tripreneures. To be a tour operator requires willingness and commitment. Extensive knowledge of their homelands that have potential to be tourist destinations is essential. Until now we have more than 550 young entrepreneurs from all over Indonesia. We established the skills, and provided them with training and a continuous coaching process. To meet other needs in terms of accommodation and facilities, we trained local communities to be involved in the tourism services chain. Out great challenge is working on changing the perspectives of the local communities with regard to tourism. For example, they eat pelican birds and kuskus (mamals) as side dishes whereas those are tourist attractions with great value. We work with local governments to create local tourism communities (in Key Island, East Belitung Island, and Wakatobi Islands). The local products and services are part of the tourism packages. Until December 2015 we have promoted more than 8000 packages with more than 200 destinations. To ensure the sustainability of the tourism market in a region, we invited the local government to become involved in our off air program, including Indietravelmart.com; a tour and tourism exhibition promoted locals tour operator.

There are a number of different approaches that we design to build networks and partnerships; motivation to solve the problems faced by communities in dealing with tourist demand. We try to utilize different tools and methods that can be seen as business innovation for the local communities. We give them management and financial training, including in re-investment of funds to have better production and services. We target products and services that are economically, socially, and environmentally friendly.

Selling the trends

Tourism’s selling points are uniqueness, and variety of experiences. It cannot be successfully operated in a silo. We are offering the uniqueness travel arrangements; we give opportunities to better understand the local content with local tour operators.

An example is Key Island; the land has huge potential as a tourism destination. We worked with local government to train the communities. After six months of training in three local communities from different villages, almost 100 domestic travellers visited and brought revenues of over 15,000 USD. However, it is not always the same outcome. Different locations have different natures of challenges.

We created social movement is #1Traveller1Book. This is a voluntary movement. We encourage each traveller in the country to carry one book at all times, to give away to children of school age (six to 15 years old) who they meet on their travels. After sharing the books, travellers are also encouraged to take photos and spread the children’s enthusiasm by uploading the images to their personal social media accounts using the Twitter hashtag #1Traveller1Book or the movement’s official website 1Traveller1Book.org.

Sustainability

The concept of sustainability in the tourism business is about scaling up the business and ensures the continuity without eroding the uniqueness. Growing demand in travel and tourism business is providing opportunities to expand the business. Strengthening the network among the tour operators and bringing access to the government, private sector and wider networks in regions even going global can reach sustainability.

Longevity of the Triptrus.com

- If we want to re-use the model, we establish in other locations in Indonesia

- If many more local government and youth groups show interest in being part of triptrus.com member and network.

- For potential sustain the social and environment

- If government to take over the economic, social, and environmental impact, and would like to further promote its own locations as target tourism destinations.