Panoramic synergy

Panorama Destination Indonesia and Synergy Tours Malaysia are forming a joint-venture company in Bali. The two companies will hold equal shares in the new inbound establishment.

Synergy Panorama Tours Bali will handle incentive and upmarket group tours from Europe, particularly France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, which Synergy Tours Malaysia specialises in. The new company is now undergoing trial joint operations and is scheduled for a December launch.

Fabio Delisi, CEO of Synergy Tours Malaysia, said: ?As public-listed companies, we need to do the trial joint operations first and see how things work. The first couple of months of operation (have yielded) US$200,000 in sales and we had not even gone through the peak season yet. We are therefore optimistic of reaching our sales target of US$1 million until the end of the year. So, even at this stage, we can say we?ll be going ahead with the joint-venture company.?

According to Delisi, Synergy Tours first explored the idea of a joint venture two years ago when it decided to offer more products to the European market. Bali, he said, was a natural option.

Delisi added the company chose to work with established inbound operator Panorama Destination rather than buying into a smaller agent in Bali as other foreign tour operators have done because, with Panorama being an established company, they could start doing business immediately.

?Besides, there will be no competition. Panorama Destination has big volume operations in the Netherlands and Scandinavia while we focus more on the upmarket and incentive segments,? said Delisi.

For Panorama Destination, the collaboration allows it to expand its business without ?having to knock on doors ourselves?, said CEO Dharma Tirtawisata. ?With Synergy, the market is at the doorstep as it is theirs already.?

Beyond that, Tirtawisata saw Synergy Panorama Tours Bali as an opportunity to strengthen the standing of parent company, Panorama Leisure Group.

?There are only a few Indonesian inbound operator big boys now,? said Tirtawisata. ?With globalisation, many international big guys have been setting up offices in Bali and I believe more are coming. Our philosophy is, if we cannot beat them, then join them.?