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JAKARTA: Family travel is a segment, which shows much potential for growth. And quick to capitalize on this Jakarta-based baliforfamily.com. The family - specialized website was introduced in February this year to meet the requirements of this lucrative niche market. Says its chief executive officer Eka Ginting: "[Since it was set up], we have enjoyed the cumulative hits of almost 500,000 from nearly 15,000 people. We've concluded about 30 real time bookings for a total of almost 200 room nights. Inquiries on family travel can number four to five emails a day."

Ginting reveals that the average length of stay per family on holiday is six nights, with average hotel spend of US$1,000 per family. Of this amount accommodation constitutes only 21.77 percent of total spending, says Setyanto Santosa, secretary general in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Despite the number of people per family, each person spends less than the solo traveler. Says Steve Charles, operation and public relations manager for Bali Adventure Tours: "We usually have to put together a budget package for family travelers by combining two or three tours in a one-day package. The average price hovers around $250 per family."

An interesting observation is that while women have to say in deciding where the family holidays, it is still the men who make the bookings. Says Ginting: "At least 60 percent of bookings received at our website are made by men."
This profile also matches the gender composition of visitors to Indonesia last year. According to the latest Ministry of Culture and Tourism figures, 1.762.038 women visitors made their way to Indonesia in 2000, accounting for about 34.79 percent of total visitor arrivals.

On the type of today's family travelers, Melanie Pedro, product development manager of Bante World Tours & Travels says that the majority is modern and young. "This new breed of families shows an awareness of nature, conservation and community care. It's pretty much a move towards education and back to nature concept," she says.

Thus Yogyakarta, a traditional cultural destination in Central Java mostly visited by West European senior travelers joining classical 'Java overland tour' packages, is beginning to be seen in a new paradigm as a family destination. " We are starting to see a lot of requests and questions about Yogya. Its emphasis on culture as the main attraction, including the impressive Borobudur, is certainly attractive to family travelers," says Ginting.

Bali adventures Travel has been quick to accommodate these educational elements in family travel. It provides children's programmes in its Elephant Park and its newly-acquired Bali Bird Park itineraries. Additionally, "we cooperate with animal theme parks, where we provide interesting quiz questions for young visitors. In future, I hope there will be more entertainment, facilities for children so we can attract this specific segment."