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Jakarta Post

Airline, hotel to propel e-money services

Payment company PT Nusa Satu Inti Artha, better known as Doku, said the travel industry and all related business will remain the main engine of growth for online payment services

Mariel Grazella (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, April 16, 2013

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Airline, hotel to propel e-money services

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ayment company PT Nusa Satu Inti Artha, better known as Doku, said the travel industry and all related business will remain the main engine of growth for online payment services.

In the future, however, retail is predicted to play a major role.

Currently, Doku is offering payment services to airline companies, such as Garuda Indonesia and Sky Aviation, as well as online ticket boxes, such as Raja Karcis.

Although the travel industry only made up 20 percent of Doku'€™s roughly 300 clients, it contributed up to 80 percent of the company'€™s revenues, Doku chief operating officer Nabila Alsagoff said.

'€œAt least 65 percent of that comes from airlines,'€ she told The Jakarta Post recently.

She added that airlines would still deliver most of Doku'€™s revenues this year given the rapid expansion of the industry, especially budget airlines.

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia said earlier the airline industry grew at almost double the country'€™s economic growth, which stood at over six percent last year.

The expansion of the airline companies showed they reached out to customers through less cash strategies, meaning they introduced online ticket selling, Nabila said.

'€œTherefore, airlines have been more aggressive in adopting online payment systems,'€ she said, adding that Doku worked with eight airlines.

She further said it was not only the customers who expected airlines to provide online payment methods, but travel agents too.

Meanwhile, the mushrooming of villas and budget hotels, including three to four star establishments, have propelled Doku'€™s business as well, alongside the increment in the number of people traveling to and within the country.

'€œTourists like to go online to search for hotels and when they do, they like to look for local brands,'€ she said, adding that a lot of these establishments were located in Bali.

The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) foresees a three-fold increase in the number of new hotel rooms in the market this year.

The leap is directly tied to the rise in air travel, facilitated by budget flights. BPS figures show that 8.04 million foreign tourists touched down in Indonesia in 2012, a figure 10.5 percent higher than the previous year.

As many as 2.9 million of the foreign tourists landed in Bali, showing a 4.07 percent annual increase.

Yet, although the travel industry would maintain its role as the top revenue generator this year, Doku '€œcannot ignore'€ working with more retailers and small/medium businesses (SMBs) '€” potential industries of the future.

'€œFor SMBs, we are looking at handicraft makers, home industries and even people selling T-shirts online,'€ she said, adding that Doku defined SMBs as businesses with monthly incomes above Rp 50 million.

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