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TRISAKTI University Tourism Professor Azril Ashari said digitalization in tourism should be translated as a platform that can serve all the needs of tourists.
“Tourism digitalization should indeed be translated into one stop shopping for tourists which includes all tourism activities, transportation, accommodation, and consumption,” said Azril, who is also the Chairperson of Cendikiawan in his statement on Tuesday (02/21).
Meanwhile, tourism observer Taufan Rahmadi, who was once a member of the Acceleration Team for 10 Priority Tourism Destinations, said that in order to attract more tourists, online travel agents need to offer innovative products such as embedding narratives of folk stories that are packaged as part of tour packages.
He then gave the example of the Bau Nyale ceremony in Mandalika, West Nusa Tenggara, which is a tradition of the Sasak tribe looking for sea worms that are considered the incarnation of Princess Mandalika.
Azril and Taufan are optimistic that Indonesia’s tourism industry will soon rise in line with the easing of social restrictions in various places in Indonesia. This will provide an opportunity to increase the trend of people traveling this year.
To capture new tourism trends after the COVID-19 pandemic, Blibli offers solutions with the Blibli, tiket.com, and Ranch Market ecosystems, which combine e-commerce, online travel agents (OTAs), and premium supermarkets.
Likewise, tiket.com CEO George Hendrata said the integration of the Blibli ecosystem allows a single sign-on that allows consumers to access various services in the ecosystem with a single entry, especially with consumer loyalty programs that can also be combined.
“We need to be agile. Customer needs will continue to change, trends also continue to change. We in the Blibli ticket ecosystem are determined to become the most trusted omnichannel platform, this is realized by offering comprehensive solutions for people whose needs are currently growing,” he said.
Indonesia’s tourism industry is increasingly showing a significant recovery after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that the number of flights in November 2022 has reached around 76 percent of the January 2019 level.
Statistically, the number of room nights booked for the accommodation segment, George revealed, has reached around 300% of the January 2019 level. Online travel penetration in Indonesia is only around 40%, lower than 60% in China and around 80% in the United States (US) so there is still a lot of potential that can be worked on so that this penetration can be further increased. [antaranews/photo special]
