PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk is trying to build a tourism ecosystem by cooperating with travel agents and media from Indonesia and Malaysia.
“Garuda’s position to create an ecosystem is that Garuda acts as a principal. Garuda believes that when partners grow, Garuda will grow,” Vice President Corporate & Channel Management of PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbc Arsena Permasadhie said in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night.
Thus, according to him, the state-owned airline functions as a national asset to help all partners grow.
He said the ecosystem in question consists of travel agent partners, corporate partners, media partners.
“Now from all of that when we can get through it (the COVID-19 pandemic) finally Garuda has a commitment to be able to grow together again with these partners,” Arsena said.
Garuda brought seven Indonesian travel agents to the Kuala Lumpur event, while also inviting 10 Malaysian travel agents to the event. Also present were a number of media representatives from Indonesia and Malaysia.
According to him, the travel agents included in the event have historically performed well in one particular country or countries. They are Indonesian travel agents with the highest sales to Malaysia, while agents from Malaysia have high sales to Indonesia.
“Now we hope that from the best with the best, with the best products from Garuda, there will be a business ecosystem that is not only useful for the Indonesian market but vice versa for the Malaysian market as well,” he said.
The event also featured video footage of a number of priority tourism locations such as Lake Toba, Tanjung Kalayang, Borobudur, Wakatobi, Morotai, Bromo Tengger Semeru, Mandalika, Labuan Bajo. The hope is that travel agents in Malaysia know it is possible to make connecting flights from Malaysia to the eastern tip of Indonesia, said Arsena.
While travel agents from Indonesia are mostly “MICE agents” where the majority of clients are corporations, he said they are trying to be encouraged to be able to do activities, one of which is in Malaysia. Agents are also invited to see interesting places and events in the center of Kuala Lumpur.
“We are thinking a little far. Hopefully the corporations that come to Malaysia will see that there is something that can be cooperated,” he said.
According to him, it is the airline’s job to bridge the company considering that Garuda is not only in the passenger transportation business, but also has cargo transportation.
