Dino, as Waqara Founder and CEO, said on what’s behind the company as Umrah marketplace, is to help pilgrims to get the reliable service. As the fraud cases increase by Umrah travel agents has encouraged them to create a safe and convenient technology for the pilgrims.
“We want to be the Umrah industry enabler. Not only for the financial aspect, but also its safety and technology,” said the former Ambassador of the Indonesian Republic to the United States.
As a marketplace, Waqara provides various Umrah sets worth of Rp19 million to Rp30 million and above. The number of packages will continue to add up as the increase of travel agents joined the platform.
Currently, there are 25 Umrah travel agents in Waqara. The number will be increased to 50 next month and doubled to 100 by the end of this year. However, Dino confirmed that the company and bank partners are doing a tight curation to avoid poor-quality travel agents.
“The most important one is not quantity. All participants must have integrity and no fraud history, etc. Therefore, the pilgrims won’t be insecure,” he added.
In its launching at Ritz Carlton, Mega Kuningan, Jakarta, Waqara offers various features to support the Umrah marketplace, such as tracking order system, bank transfer options, opening the first bank account, various payment options, travel cancellation insurance, and WaqaraMall that sells halal products.
Waqara partners with some firms to support each feature, such as BNI, BNI Syariah, Mandiri, Mandiri Syariah, BCA, BCA Syariah, BRI, BRI Syariah, and BFI Multifinance Syariah in terms of payment, also Blibli for WaqaraMall.
For insurance, Waqara offers the first travel cancellation insurance in Indonesia. They also said the return money could be 95 percent.
In terms of funding, Waqara is still bootstrapping and looking for investors. Their entrance has tightened the Umrah marketplace competition in Indonesia, such as Pergiumroh, Kitaumroh, and Umroh.com.
In Indonesia, Umrah marketplace is not just any marketplace. Last year, Indonesian pilgrims have reached over 1 million worth of Rp20 trillion in the market. It’s the reason why all those travel agents compete in this industry, including Abu Tours and First Travel, both have failed to depart.
Thus, the government through the Ministry of Religion has developed an Online Umrah app to minimize the lousy agents. They’re to involve Traveloka and Tokopedia in this scheme.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian