T

he country'€™s largest tour and travel company, the Panorama Group, is diversifying its inbound tourist market to the Asia Pacific and North America regions amid a decline in European tourists using its services.

Rocky Kalalo, managing director of Panorama Convex, Panorama'€™s business line providing services for conventions and exhibitions, said on Wednesday Panorama needed to expand its market due to a decline in European travelers.

'€œWe see that Europe'€™s economy is still slowing down,'€ he said.

Inbound European travelers using the company'€™s services declined to 56,889 people last year from 79,482 people in 2011, while the firm'€™s Asian inbound travelers surged to 37,203 people last year from 21,194 people in 2011, according to the firm'€™s report.

Rocky Praputranto, operational director of PT Destinasi Tirta Nusantara, Panorama'€™s inbound business line, said his firm would boost the market outside Europe, including Asia and North America.

'€œAsian inbound travelers made up 34 percent of our total inbound travelers. We are now pushing it to get bigger, while at the same time working on our European market,'€ he said.

Kalalo said Asians would become a big portion of the world'€™s travelers as many more Asians had bigger purchasing power.

He said that the number of Southeast Asian tourists was projected to grow by between 7 and 9 percent annually, surpassing the number of global tourists that was estimated to grow by 3 percent per year.

'€œIn addition, the ASEAN Economic Community [AEC], which will kick off next year, will be an opportunity for us to grow the number of Asian inbound travelers as there will be a bigger influx of people across the region,'€ he said.

Kalalo said besides diversifying its inbound traveler market to include more Asia and North America areas, Panorama would also concentrate on developing e-commerce and expanding its infrastructure.

He said Panorama would launch an online system that would enable customers to pay tour packages in installments.

'€œWe already provide an online hotel, ticket and tour booking system. So, we want to provide more innovation for customers,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, for developing its infrastructure, Panorama would spend Rp 429 billion (US$35.7 million) this year, Panorama financial director Daniel Martinus said.

Daniel added 60 percent of the capital expenditure would be allocated to finance new buildings and pool construction, while the remaining 40 percent would be for the expansion of fleet and hotels.

He said Panorama targeted to record between a 10 and 15 percent growth in revenue this year, with Panorama'€™s travel and leisure business line (consisting of Destianasi Tirta Nusantara and a business unit providing services for outbound travelers) expected to remain the largest revenue contributor of around 29 percent.

Panorama booked a 9.48 percent increase in net revenue to Rp 1.69 trillion last year from Rp 1.54 trillion in 2012.

The firm'€™s bottom line surged by 54.74 percent to Rp 39.27 billion last year from Rp 25.38 billion in the previous year.

The number of Asian tourists has grown sharply in recent years, exceeding the number of Australians, who usually rank third after Singaporeans and Malaysians.

Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry data shows 324,344 tourists from China visited Indonesia in the January-April period of the year, more than 316,122 visitors from Australia. The number of visitors from Singapore and Malaysia was 463,924 and 413,504, respectively.