Indonesia’s tour operators reroute groups as haze cancels trips

Indonesia’s haze is testing tourism’s ability to substitute destinations. Classic Tours Lombok is redirecting groups from Kalimantan and Sumatra to Flores and Sulawesi.

Ministry of Transportation figures carried by TTG Asia put affected domestic flights at 2,604 as of 19 October. These included 1,129 delays and 1,420 cancellations or postponements. Another 14 international flights were affected, including services linking Singapore with Pontianak and Palembang. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation instructed airport operators in affected regions to enforce low visibility procedures in coordination with AirNav Indonesia and the meteorological agency. Its instructions also covered issuing Notices to Airmen and enhancing passenger services in terminals.

Those interruptions create several different commercial problems. A delayed arrival compresses a holiday; a cancelled wildlife visit removes its purpose. Moving a group elsewhere can preserve the tour seller’s booking while leaving the original destination’s accommodation and activity suppliers without the spending.

Wildlife trips leave less room to substitute

Inbound tour operator Panorama Destination had two groups cancel Tanjung Puting National Park trips, its director Ricky Setiawanto told TTG Asia. He described the Central Kalimantan park as a draw for European wildlife enthusiasts travelling specifically to see orangutans.

For a specialist wildlife holiday, access and attraction quality are inseparable. Restoring the flight solves only part of the customer’s problem if smoke spoils the activity they bought. An alternative destination has to satisfy the reason for travelling before it can rescue the sale.

Ricky said Kalimantan accounted for only a small part of most tour packages, with Tanjung Puting the region’s main attraction. Visitors without a specific interest in orangutans could continue to other destinations on their itineraries. Overseas partners were also seeking information ahead of upcoming trips.

That gives a broad itinerary more room to absorb disruption. The seller can remove an affected component and retain the rest of the journey. For the local supplier, however, spending transferred elsewhere is lost business for that departure, even when the customer remains in Indonesia.

Rerouting protects sellers before local suppliers

Classic Tours Lombok, which operates across Indonesia, was redirecting groups booked for Kalimantan and Sumatra to Flores and Sulawesi. Travel consultant Lalu Nawasier Tralala said the changes particularly involved travellers already in Indonesia and were intended to avoid cancellations and refunds.

A replacement itinerary is therefore a revenue defence with its own cost negotiation. If the customer accepts the change, the seller still has to settle the original arrangements and price the replacement. Preserving the booking offers little protection to margin if those costs fall on the organiser.

The exposure is sharper for a local operator with fewer destinations to sell. Joko Purwanto, director of Trans Borneo Adventure in East Kalimantan, said all bookings scheduled over the preceding seven days had been cancelled after flights stopped operating, many at short notice.

Joko said bookings through December remained unaffected. The immediate commercial divide is between an interrupted departure and a future booking still on the books. A postponement preserves a chance of earning the revenue later; a refund followed by abandonment of the trip removes that chance.

Airline refunds cover one part of the journey

The Transportation Ministry described a specific remedy for passengers affected by cancellations at Singkawang Airport between 16 and 18 August. They were eligible for a full refund or free rescheduling within seven days under the airlines’ policies.

A flight refund addresses the ticket component. A package organiser still needs a settlement for rooms and activities attached to the cancelled arrival. If suppliers retain deposits while the traveller receives a refund, the organiser has a cash exposure before any insurance recovery enters the calculation.

Insurance changes that calculation only when the policy responds to the actual interruption. A claim tied to a cancelled flight presents a different contractual question from a customer declining to travel because of air quality. The wording, exclusions and settlement terms determine how much cost returns to the operator.

Advance commitments make this more than a theoretical pricing problem. Adjie Wahono, operations manager of tour company Aneka Kartika Tours and Travel Services, said two Singaporean student groups of 60 each had cancelled Jakarta trips scheduled for the end of October. Hotel rooms and other arrangements were already in place. Adjie also said a group from Germany was requesting written assurances about safety and air pollution, along with alternative arrangements following an air pollution warning from German authorities. For this group, the request extended beyond a replacement activity to written assurances about the conditions in which the holiday would take place.

Haze concerns travel beyond the affected destination

Adjie said indoor activities were being discussed for another student group due in November. Replacing outdoor visits can preserve a trip when the customer accepts the revised product. It also changes which attractions earn the visitor’s spending and leaves the organiser negotiating a different package. In Batam, Pauline Suharno, president of the Association of the Indonesian Travel Agents, said members had reported cancellations among Singaporean and Malaysian tour groups because of haze concerns. Accommodation businesses were also affected. Hariyadi Sukamdani, chairman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said hotels in Sumatra and Kalimantan were seeing lower occupancy and more cancellations, while hotels in other destinations remained unaffected. That uneven pattern gives replacement itineraries a commercial role for hotels as well as tour sellers: retaining the holiday can move the accommodation booking to another destination.

Regional substitution also carries exposure to smoke. In September, CNA described cancelled outdoor events and flight disruption in Sarawak. Shifting a holiday across a border therefore needs the same scrutiny of access and usable activities as changing destinations within Indonesia.

The largest commercial danger is a widening gap between conditions at a destination and the customer’s willingness to travel. Reliable flights and acceptable outdoor conditions make replacement itineraries easier to sell. Continuing concern can keep cancellations moving through the chain even where an itinerary remains operational.

Forestry minister Raja Juli Antoni said the government was tackling the fires through aerial and ground operations, including weather modification and helicopter water bombing. ‘Every effort is being made, including strengthening ground teams,’ he said.