Starting up a travel agency

As a tourist guide, I have accompanied a lot of travelers to see various places in and around Manokwari city. Although I introduce myself as a tourist guide, my job is often similar to a travel agency. Travel agency is a kind of company that arrange the trips of tourists to certain places. The arrangement includes the reservation of flights, hotels, cars, restaurants and guiding services. For example, before some tourists arrived from the Netherlands, they sent me an email asking questions related to interesting places and prices of goods and services which they might use while traveling around West Papua. In my replied email, I explained about the places that they ask especially their elevations from sea surface, temperature, the time we need to reach them by car and most importantly what we can see or experience in those areas. I also attach an itinerary in a spreadsheet file with prices to help the tourists prepare enough money as their budget for traveling in Indonesia. The prices that I mention in the itinerary are obtained from hotel owners, car rent drivers, airline ticket agencies and boat drivers in Manokwari and a number of villages that have been included in the itinerary list.

Customized tour package

If you read my explanation above, you can easily conclude that the tour packages that I offer to tourists have been customized according to the duration of the stay and the places which the tourists want to see. A good or professional travel agency must accurately provide an itinerary whose schedule and prices of goods and services are accurate. Customized to packages should be developed if there are potential tourist destinations that a travel agency want to promote. For instance, I used to offer a snorkeling trip to Manem islet to three tourists from the Netherlands. Manem is a small satellite island near Numfor island. Numfor is between Manokwari and Biak. I personally had never visited Manem. To give accurate assessment about the new destination, I decided to go to Numfor by passenger cargo boat KM Yap Wairon one day before the departure of the tourists to Numfor. When I have arrived, I contacted a number of local people about the accommodation, the places where the coral reef are still in good condition and the price of boat rent. After getting all the information, I sent text messages to the tourists informing them that there was a ferry boat in the harbor of Manokwari city coming to Numfor island that morning. They immediately bought some food and went to the pier of Manokwari harbor. Ferry boat KM Kasuari Pasifik was preparing to leave the city for Numfor island. Around six hours later, I met the Dutch tourists in Numfor harbor. The customized snorkeling tour package had been developed one day before the tourists arrived in Numfor. It includes bird watching trip around Kornasoren village and Yemburwo village at the north of Numfor, traditional Papuan dance and music performance at the house of Mr. Simon Wanma (the tribal chief of the island). To give you an idea of what an itinerary is like, please, check some travel destinations that I offer in one of my tour packages to foreign tourists.

A 2-Week Tour Package in and around Manokwari regency

Day 1 Arrival in Manokwari

Manokwari city tour to Sarinah, Cape PKN
A little tour to Anggrem traditional boat harbor to see the wooden boats and to see Papuan artists

Day 2 A Snorkeling trip to Mansinam island

Snorkeling at South West of the island
Tour to Mansinam village
A visit to wood carving artist Peter Rumbruren

Day 3 Hiking and Caving in Table Mountain

Day 4 Preparation for a trip to Senopi (buying food)

Day 5 Car trip to Kebar and Senopi

Day 6 Bird watching in Senopi village

Day 7 Swimming at Afrawi river

Day 8 Tour to Atai of District Kebar where there is hot spring water

Day 9 Watching Traditional Dance

Day 10 Car trip to Manokwari

Day 11 One day rest in Manokwari

Day 12 Trip to Numfor

Day 13 Bird watching trip around Yemburwo, Swimming at Asaibori beach

Day 14 Boat trip to Manem

Snorkeling over the coral reef of the islet,
Visiting Amberimasi bay
After returning from Manem, the next activity is watching music and dance performance at the house of Simon Wanma

Day 15 Back to Manokwari

Day 16 Rest

Day 17 Flight to Jakarta

To serve tourists, a travel agency must cooperate with local service providers and places where the tourists will visit. This is a very important factor that a tour guide or travel agency must do in order to successfully run his or her business. Without a good network and solid cooperation, a tour package will not be completed or accomplished well. A travel agency must also prepare reserved plan as an alternative which tourists can do or choose if due to bad weather a trip to certain island cannot be carried out. My travel itinerary to Numfor was Plan B that I offered to tourists after the Plan A which was the trip to Rumberpon island in the National Park of Cendrawasih bay due to too high prices that the staff of the park charge to tourists.

The eco-tourism packages that I offer to tourists have been developed to achieve the following goals:

To preserve rainforest and coral reef
To provide alternative jobs to the indigenous people
To serve tourists in reasonable prices

An experienced travel agency has to arrange the trips in reasonable prices. A travel agency has to be able to combine the services of all tourism service providers in his tour packages to work together to satisfied the tourists. When tourists are satisfied with the services that the travel agency provide, they will recommend the company to their other friends.