SilkAir gearing up for bid to promote RI tourist sites
SilkAir gearing up for bid to promote RI tourist sites
By Riyadi
SINGAPORE (JP): SilkAir does sell Indonesia. The country has
been the backbone of the airline's business and will be for some
time in the future.
The Singapore-based SilkAir is now gearing up for a massive
worldwide campaign to promote little-known places of interest in
Indonesia.
They include the Bali-like Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, the
divers' paradise of North Sulawesi, the Minangkabau land of West
Sumatra and the Keraton Solo in Central Java.
"We sell Indonesia together with Singapore. And Indonesia has
just a lot to offer," SilkAir's general manager, Michael F.M.
Chan, said in an interview with The Jakarta Post here on Friday.
SilkAir, a full subsidiary of Singapore's flag carrier
Singapore Airlines (SIA), was incorporated in 1989 as Tradewinds
Airline, which was then renamed SilkAir in 1992.
Since it first took to the skies, it has focused on offering
an exotic array of holiday destinations around the region. Only
recently has it eyed business destinations in the region.
SilkAir's maiden flight to Indonesia was made in October 1991,
when it started flying three times a day to Jakarta directly from
Singapore by B737-300 aircraft. Then it took over the Medan,
North Sumatra, route from SIA. It started its third Indonesian
service to Manado, North Sulawesi, in March 1994.
Aggressive
Last year was the most aggressive year for SilkAir. It opened
five new routes to Indonesian destinations, including Lombok,
Pekanbaru in Riau, Padang in West Sumatra, Surakarta in Central
Java and Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi.
In total, SilkAir flies to eight Indonesian destinations 51
times a week, including Jakarta 21 times, Medan nine times,
Lombok six times, Pekanbaru four times, Ujungpandang three times,
Surakarta three times, Manado twice and Padang three times.
It serves the eight destinations with B737s and F70s.
Three of the eight routes are operated jointly with local
carriers -- Surakarta with Merpati, Lombok with Sempati Air and
Ujungpandang with Bouraq.
"They constitute almost 50 percent of our total capacity of
104 flights a week. Indonesia is a very important market to us.
That's why we are spending a lot for promoting our points in
Indonesia," Chan said.
Together with SIA, SilkAir advertises all its eight Indonesian
destinations throughout the world.
It regularly brings travel agents and travel writers from
European countries, the United States, Australia, Japan, Taiwan,
Hong Kong as well as Singapore to the eight destinations.
"Travel writers, when they get back to their home countries,
can write stories about the destinations in their own languages,"
Chan said.
SilkAir also makes videos about these destinations, mostly
featuring tourist attractions and points of interests, then makes
copies of them and sends them to all SIA and SilkAir offices as
well as to travel agents around the world.
When giving a presentation about SilkAir at the SIA-sponsored
4th World Media Forum 1996 in Singapore last week, for instance,
Chan ended his presentation with a 10-minute video clip on
Lombok.
SIA traditionally hosts a forum before a biennial Asian
Aerospace air show. This year's show will be held at Singapore's
Changi Exhibition Center from Feb. 6 through Feb. 11.
"All of these promotion activities are very useful because
many of these destinations are not known yet. We will continue to
do this with SIA," Chan said.
Chan noted that SilkAir and SIA have been working closely with
the Indonesian government, the government-backed Indonesian
Tourist Promotion Office and the privately-run Indonesian Tourism
Promotion Board.
He said the tourism cooperation between Indonesia and
Singapore benefits both countries.
"Tourists that we bring to Singapore will now go to
Indonesia," Chan said.
After SilkAir started direct services to Manado, the number of
tourist arrivals in North Sulawesi increased by 374 percent in
the 1994/1995 fiscal year from the previous year.
Manado has become one of Indonesia's gateways, especially for
the eastern part of the country. Two airlines from Taiwan and
South Korea plan to start direct flights from their countries to
Manado. And Indonesia's flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, will fly
the route between Manado and Nagoya, Japan, in April.
This year, Chan said, SilkAir does not plan to open new routes
to Indonesia. Instead, it will increase its capacity for the
existing points by promoting them more extensively abroad.
When asked, he declined to mention the airline's budget for
promoting its Indonesian destinations, saying: "We just put a lot
of money and efforts in promoting these destinations. And in the
beginning we do not make money."
Chan explained that for the airline's Indonesian routes,
SilkAir targets to breakeven in two to three years.
"Most of the routes are still developing. So, they are not yet
making money. But we do this for the long term basis," Chan
continued.
According to the financial report of SIA, SilkAir incurred an
operating loss of S$26 million (US$19 million) in the 1994/1995
fiscal year ending in March, as its expenditure rose by 24.9
percent from the previous year to S$36 million, while its
revenues increased only by 7.1 percent to S$10 million.
Although SilkAir still bears a significant amount of losses
from flying the eight Indonesian points, it wants to fly to more
destinations in the country, much more after the country
liberalizes its airspace.
"Certainly we'd like to open up more points in Indonesia...
Hopefully, eventually, we will be given more points that we can
fly to."