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INDONESIA’S consumer confidence in travel agents and service providers is a factor that will influence how quickly and strongly the local travel industry can recover, according to a recent independent survey from Travelport, a global leader in retail travel launched today.
The survey also revealed three main factors that affect the trust of travel service users in Indonesia, namely security measures and health protection against COVID-19, price transparency, and information credibility.
This online survey covers 11,000 travel service users in 10 countries, including 1,000 respondents in Indonesia, and was conducted by Edelman Data & Intelligence (DxI). The results of this survey provide evidence that trust is a factor that influences the buying behavior of travel service users in Indonesia.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic took place, more than half (54% compared to 46% at the global level) travel service users in Indonesia stated that they prioritized the trust factor over other factors, when choosing a travel service provider (airlines), more compared to respondents in other countries included in this study.
Travel service users in Indonesia also stated that the trust factor prompted them to consider buying various other travel service offers (69%), adding to the packages they had purchased (66%) and buying other offers that were not travel-related, such as credit cards (51 %) more than respondents from other countries.
“As many as 67% of travel service users in Indonesia show confidence in the travel industry – much higher than the global survey results,” said Raymond Setokusumo, President Director of Galileo Indonesia Perdana, Travelport’s Official Partner in Indonesia in a statement quoted on Thursday.
“The results of this survey also reveal a number of important issues for travel service users. Therefore, the travel industry must use the trust that has been given by trying to answer these consumer needs, and accelerate the industry’s recovery,” added Raymond.
The most important main factor for travel service companies to build consumer confidence in Indonesia1 is by implementing health and safety measures to prevent COVID-19, as desired by 56% of respondents who put this as a top priority.
In addition, one in three respondents stated that they would like to see concrete action, for example by improving air filtration, implementing social distancing and contactless services.
“The travel industry should be proud of how quickly and effectively they have responded to COVID-19. However, we must also see that based on this research, service providers and travel agents should more clearly communicate the health and safety measures they have implemented, such as implementing social distancing,” said Gary Harford, Regional Director, APAC Operator Territories Travelport.
He added that the second factor that is considered important for consumers in Indonesia to build trust, is the absence of hidden costs (43%) and flexible or fully refundable products (45%). Price transparency is very important.
“Airlines with flexible or fully refundable products can earn 11% more trust, compared to relying on a safety track record. Consumer demand is clear; now is the time to eliminate hidden costs and increase price and communication transparency,” added Harford.
For 86% of consumers in Indonesia, family and friends are a trusted source when they look for travel planning information, because they are considered to have the same interests. However, they also trust other sources, such as travel companies, and traditional media such as travel shows on television, travel magazines, and newspapers.
In terms of trust in the types of information related to travel, 76% of travel service users in Indonesia trust customer reviews, and 74% trust customer ratings, well above the level of trust in third-party certification (63%).
“Customer reviews are an important part of the modern retail experience. You certainly wouldn’t shop on an e-commerce platform without first reading the reviews. Currently, although data shows that reviews are the information consumers trust the most, travel agency web pages generally do not display customer reviews,” said Harford.
According to Harford, the survey results show that trust combined with the latest technology and effective sales will be a very strong proposition.
“At Travelport, we will continue to invest in these areas, to assist industry selection efforts from the impact of the pandemic, and to ensure that we get through this challenge more agile and strong.”
Previously, entering the second semester of 2021, travel business players still tried to be optimistic even though the number of COVID-19 cases in the country was increasing. Chairperson of the Indonesian Travel Agent Association (ASTINDO), Pauline Suharno, said that he had not been able to correctly project the tourism industry in the second semester of 2021. This is because the COVID-19 case which has not yet experienced a decline will greatly affect travel plans for both domestic and overseas.
“It can’t be projected, because the projections are all mental from last year, but as an association we are optimistic, we must be optimistic,” said Pauline.
Pauline said that in November 2020, tourist travel had begun to see improvements. Many domestic tourists are starting to plan a trip to Turkey. However, the second wave of COVID-19 made all travel plans down again. This time, many people are afraid to travel, especially because it is called the new variant, which is more dangerous. [antaranews/photo special]
