Travel services firm PT Panorama Tours Indonesia (PTI) has obtained business backup from Japan’s largest travel agent JTB Corp., following the latter’s stake acquisition in the company.

JTB’s acquisition was made final during a recent general shareholders’ meeting of PT Panorama Sentrawisata, the parent company of PTI.

The shareholders approved Panorama Sentrawisata’s plan to transfer 30.1 percent of its stake in PTI to JTB for Rp 369.72 billion (US$27.71 million).

Panorama Sentrawisata and JTB signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the transaction in February in Japan.

Publicly listed transportation firm PT Weha Transportasi Indonesia — which is Panorama Sentrawisata’s associated firm — has also agreed to transfer its whole 9.9 percent stake in PTI to JCB.

Following the agreements, the trade name of “Panorama Tours Indonesia” will change to “Panorama JTB Tours.” PTI’s shareholder structure will then consist of Panorama Sentrawisata with 60 percent and JTB with 40 percent.

About 25 percent of the funds from the share sale will be used to expand PTI’s tourism business, 20 percent will be set aside as working capital reserve and the remaining funds will be used to restructure its capital.

Panorama Sentrawisata president director Budi Tirtawisata said that the partnership was expected to open the door wider for global expansion as JTB operates agencies in 37 countries and regions worldwide.

PTI itself has more than 53 retail outlets across 24 cities in Indonesia.

“We see an opportunity because JTB also hopes to expand regionally. This is in line with our plan to expand our business outside the country,” he said on Friday.

“This partnership will enable our tourism business to compete in the global market.”

Data from PTI shows that its inbound tourists mainly come from Europe, while those from Asia only make up 25 percent.

Budi, however, acknowledged that lack of infrastructure would remain a challenge in attracting tourists to Indonesia.

A visit to Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara is more expensive and time consuming than traveling from an ASEAN country to Singapore, for instance.

Indonesian Tour and Travel Agents Association (Asita) chairman Asnawi Bahar said that the cooperation between JTB and Panorama Sentrawisata might help the country welcome more tourists from the region, including ASEAN.

“But like in Malaysia, there is a lot of players. It also depends on what strategy they will apply,” he said over the phone.

He highlighted that the growth of tourist visits from several ASEAN countries had been stagnant and even fell last year.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), tourist visits from Singapore declined 6.6 percent to 1.4 million visitors last year, while those from Malaysia dropped 8.3 percent to 1.1 million visitors.

Asita estimates that there is a potential to see a 10 percent surge in the number of ASEAN visitors this year, but claims that several destinations, such as Batam in Riau that is a favorite among Singaporean visitors, be developed more to keep tourists interested.

The Tourism Ministry has stated that it expects to welcome 2.3 million Singaporean visitors this year, the highest after Greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Asita hopes to facilitate 503,215 Japanese tourist visits this year, a 7.5 percent increase from last year. Japan is in the top five contributors of foreign tourists in 2016.

“But the number can’t exceed that of China because its population is not growing so much. In China, there are more people that have not gone to Indonesia, while most Japanese have,” Asnawi said.

Unlike Asita, the Tourism Ministry is more optimistic about its target, estimating 762,000 Japanese visitors in 2017. (ecn)

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