CEO Insights Magazine

In the present day, distances no longer pose significant barriers to travel, particularly as people increasingly journey for business-related reasons. Consequently, organizations seek comprehensive solutions that can seamlessly manage their travel needs, allowing them to concentrate on more crucial matters. With the aspiration of becoming the preeminent and most reliable travel agency dedicated to delivering top-notch services to customers, Ketapang Tour & Travel was established. Ketapang Tour & Travel primarily operates within the tourism and transportation sectors, while also supplying office stationery to its clients. Among its key offerings are services like booking flights and train tickets, reserving hotel rooms, facilitating corporate travel, organizing MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events), and providing travel insurance, among other options.

To extend its operations both nationally and internationally, the company is led by Metta Widya Dharma as its Managing Director. Metta Widya Dharma's journey started with her graduation from a tourism-focused high school, followed by employment as a travel consultant in 2001. Concurrently, she pursued Marketing Communication studies at the London School of Public Relations. Her subsequent roles included serving as an Account Manager for MICE at Smailing Tours & Travels, followed by assuming leadership positions at various organizations. In addition to her accomplishments in the tours and travel industry, she has also ventured into the skincare realm with her brand, Einerskin. Presently, she serves as the Managing Director of Ketapang Tour & Travel. Her extensive and diverse experience in the tours and travel sector has led to numerous accolades for Ketapang Tour & Travel. Let’s hear more from her in this interaction.

What is the motivation that fuels your daily routines?

I always put my best effort into the company I am working with. One of the motivations is I love to see the compactness of my team and it’s motivated me to put extra effort to increase their well-being. Beside that I as a mandatory holder from the shareholders, I am obliged to provide more value for the assignment, and I have proven this by giving dividends right when the pandemic ends.

How would you define Ketapang Tour & Travel as an organization and its position in the market?

Ketapang Tour & Travels is owned by the State Gas Employee and Pensioners Welfare Foundation. Established in the year 2013, the company is supporting most of the travel activity in Perusahaan Gas Negara Group (National Gas Company). Our position in the market is relatively strong because we are handling tours & travel services for most of the corporates in Jakarta and other big cities. We also provide the best satisfaction to our customers in terms of tourism and transportation services which makes us a one-stop solution for organizations.

Tell us about your flagship offerings and what are the value additions that customers can expect from your offerings.

My company always tries to give the most affordable pricing of our excellent services to all our clients. We always maintain a standard of providing quick responses for any kind of request or query raised by the customers. We try to give response to any email within an hour and we try to suggest the best services at the best price, we also suggest to them the best itinerary and best offers on tickets that make our customers respect us and continue availing all the services from us only.

Tell us about your leadership approach. What are the guidelines or methodologies you follow as a leader?

As a leader, I always respect my team members and treat them as my family. I encourage my team to give as many best services as possible to all the clients so that they never have to worry about client retention. I involve my team in solving problems to build strong connections between us. My team is quite happy with the methodologies that I use, and this gives them enough confidence to come to me whenever they need my assistance in solving any problem.

What is the future destination you are heading towards? In light of your strong experience within the industry, what advice would you give to budding industry leaders?

The future of the company that we are heading towards is going public by bringing the IPO of the company. As far as my future destination is concerned, I will continue working with Ketapang Tour & Travel to develop and expand it globally because the company holds a lot of development potential and as of now, I only want to unleash all those potential and help Ketapang to develop.

The tours & travel industry is a very challenging industry because several travel agencies are operating around the globe. So, one must develop products that are different from their competitors. My advice for the budding leaders in this industry is to be unique, make something different from others, and be creative every time. If your products are unique then all the corporates will come to you and will keep coming to you only.

Metta Widya Dharma, Managing Director, Ketapang Tour & Travel

An open-minded leader with a proven track record of working in the tours & travel industry, Metta Widya Dharma has working experience of more than a decade which helped her in solving complex issues of organizations very smoothly

• Hobbies: Singing, Songwriting & Reading.

• Favorite Cuisine: Thai & Indonesian

• Favorite Book: Books written by Mark Manson

• Favorite Travel Destination: Thailand, Bali, and Turkey