In my time covering travel in Asia, I’ve always felt Indonesia was the most undiscovered, unexplored, untapped destination as well as market. Many travellers don’t know Indonesia beyond Bali. Some people don’t even know Bali is part of Indonesia.

Yet beyond Bali is a world of riches and diversity beyond our comprehension. Sumatra and its lakes and Batak singers. Solo and its rice fields and temples. Yogyakarta and its arts and fabrics. Bandung and its youthful spirit. Nias and its amazing stone jumpers and waves that attract keen surfers from around the world. Lombok and its pristine beaches. Manado and its dive sites.

And that’s all I’ve managed to cover so far.

As an outbound market, the potential is immense. One hotelier who attended WIT Indonesia said she was gobsmacked to realize the potential – 240 million people and if only 10% travelled, and it’s a youthful, social, mobile generation – and she lives in Singapore, just 90 minutes away from Jakarta.

So near and yet so far …

Singapore’s tourism would be hollowed out if Indonesians didn’t come out to play. Singapore Airlines would be deprived of a major hinterland market if Indonesians chose to fly other airlines. That’s how vital Indonesia is to Singapore.

Local hotel groups are huge in Indonesia – they have the fifth largest domestic travel market in the world as their playground.

And so at WIT Indonesia, I felt the energy and vitality of a young market ready to take its place on the digital world stage. But underneath the euphoria, I sense an unease, a tension between the traditional and the digital world.

Indonesia’s travel and tourism is dominated by large traditional players, much like in Japan. They have massive clout and hold on the supply chain. Yes, some of them are making forays into the online world. Rajakamar.com is the marriage between three huge travel families, Panorama, Smailing and Dwidaya. Go Indonesia is the baby child of the KAHA Group. It’s both a defensive and offensive move – to protect their market share and to grow a new market.

But I sense there is suspicion of online travel in general.

This was most evident at the WITNext session in the evening when we invited about 50 students from local universities to learn about career opportunities in travel. The questions we got related to how could technology be good for travel when technology takes away jobs and online travel does not need people to serve customers, “no need for smiles, just clicks”, as one attendee put it.

Our panelists, including Erik Tjetjep of ezytravel.co.id (pictured left with moderator Timothy Hughes of Agoda); Gaery Undarsa of tiket.com, Lisa Sanjoyo, GM of Ibis Jakarta Mangga Dua; and Graham Hills of Wego.co.id (pictured below), did their best to explain that online travel was just as labour intensive in Indonesia – you still need people to man call centres, to speak to customers, to source content; just that new skills were now needed as travel migrates to online platforms and that universities should be teaching students these new skills … 

And so I feel the online travel industry has a huge and critical responsibility to educate young Indonesians as well as the Indonesian travel trade that its growth  – which is inevitable given this is where customers are headed – is not a threat but an opportunity.

In the end, it should not be about online travel vs offline travel – it should all be about travel which is ultimately about providing the customer with the best experience however he or she chooses to book it, and when he or she travels.

The good thing about being a late bloomer is that Indonesia can learn from other markets which have gone through similar teething pains – and this is what we want our second WIT Indonesia and WITNext event to address. As they say, each event prepares you for the next.