JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 313 THE REGENT SEVEN SEAS CRUISES VOYAGER: HANDLING- PROCEDURE ENDEAVOR OF SHORE EXCURSIONS AT PT. PACIFIC WORLD NUSANTARA 1 2 3 Ni Made Ayu Saraswati Gede Ginaya I Ketut Budarma 4Ni Putu Wiwiek Ary Susyarini Travel and Tourism Business, Politeknik Negeri Bali 1ayusaraswati.made@gmail.com, 2ginaya@pnb.ac.id, 3ketutbudarma@pnb.ac. id 4wiwiek32@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The cruise industry is a highly concentrated business in terms of players and markets. Vessel deployment strategies and itinerary design by cruise operators are primordial and are affected by market and operational considerations. This paper focuses on the procedure of handling shore excursions for the Regent Seven Seas Cruises Voyager by the Department of Inter cruises at PT. Pacific World Nusantara. By applying a descriptive qualitative research, the data was collected through observation, interview, and document review. The theory used to undertake this study is the Cruise Industry Perspective of European Commission Passenger Ship Safety Meeting, Brussels. The data that has been classified is analyzed by qualitative descriptive method with an inductive- methodological paradigm which is setting up the discussion from particular principles to the general in order to obtain a conclusion. The result of data analysis is presented by formal and informal method. The study reveals the handling procedure of shore excursions for Regent Seven Seas Cruise Voyager necessitates so much higher international standard either during preparation prior to the cruise arrival, tours upon its arrival, on departure as well as after departure itself that, in fact, Regent Seven Seas Cruise Voyager has exclusive standard operation tour and Inter-cruises team takes high concern to handle the shore excursion program for their clients. Therefore, the success of the cruise handling is a staff-handling cruise endeavor as the company’s pride and accomplishment. Keywords: Regent Seven Seas Cruises Voyager, cruise shore excursions, cruise industry. INTRODUCTION Cruise ship has been appeared to be a modern industry since late 1960s and soon developed into a mass market using large vessels as it was showed by the Titanic in a luxurious-dramatic movie. Its existence has given more added-value of revenue-generating passenger services onboard. Therefore, it has become a salient symbol of the globalization of the tourism industry in terms of its market coverage, its practices in customer service and the mobility of its assets (Chin, mailto:4wiwik32@yahoo.com mailto:ayusaraswati.made@gmail.com,%202 mailto:ayusaraswati.made@gmail.com,%202 mailto:3ketutbudarma@pnb.ac.%20id mailto:4wiwiek32@yahoo.com JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 314 2008; Weaver, 2005; Wood, 2000). As a new trend of tourism business, cruises remain a favorite among young energic people who study on vocational field in maritime and tourism as they want to get job in the cruise line. Cruise industry gives economic, social and environmental dimensions of the cruise market (Dwyer, Douglas, and Livaic, 2004). Many scholars analyzed the economic significance of cruise tourism and cruise ship calls (Dwyer and Forsyth, 1998), while Doublas and Douglas (2004) unraveled cruise ship passenger spending patterns, the optimal routing of cruise ships, the cruise ship port selection process, and the optimal cruise-liner passenger cabin pricing policy. The service offerings and locational qualities of cruise ports have also received attention through examining the specific site and situation requirements of cruise ports (McCalla,1998), while Vaggelas and Pallis (2010) identified and classified the different services provided by 20 European passenger ports. Gui and Russo (2011) introduced an analytic framework that connects the global structure of cruise value chains to the regional articulation of land-based cruise services. Many visitors that came to Bali usually using aircraft and they arrive in Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport. Heading to Bali using plane is the easiest and fastest way for the tourists. Additionally, some of them arrive in the island after few hours sailing. For example, some tourists cross the Java and Lombok strait, as the island is situated between Java and Lombok islands, either by ferry or fast boat. Moreover, luxurious cruise ships occasionally anchored in some seaports in the island, such as Padang Bai and Tanah Ampo harbors in Karangasem Regency, Benoa harbor in the Municipal city of Denpasar, and Celukan Bawang harbor in Buleleng Regency. Thus, passengers can take shore excursions throughout the island while the cruise ships disembark in respective harbor and the tourists have to rush on board prior to the schedule departure. It is often to be a glimpse sight that some cruise ships still anchor offshore toward the southeast side of the island and tender guests to shore. Therefore, this evidence proves that sea cruising is getting more and more famous nowadays in Bali. As the famous tourist destination in Indonesia, Bali sees a brighter outlook on cruise tourism. The pleasure of traveling on a cruise kept the tourist coming back for more. Through cruises, tourists can get to see a lot of different ports, different cities, different countries, and can explore the entire destination where the cruise anchors. The intensive arrival of cruise ships in Bali would definitely contribute to the island's revenue and improve the prosperity of the local people. The most important thing here is that is it not only on the high quantity of cruise ships docking in Bali, but also the duration of their stay in the island. Generally, they stay for 2 or 3 days. The longer they are here, the more money they will spend, and that could boost the local economy in Bali. As a matter of fact, cruise ships typically utilize three ports, namely Benoa, Celukan Bawang, and Padang Bay Port. For Benoa Port, most ships anchor offshore and passengers are tender to the terminal. Smaller ships may dock alongside though the process of docking is tricky. In addition, Celukan Bawang Port is the main cargo port of northern in Bali. The port of Celukan Bawang JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 315 allows passengers to discover a different part of Bali, as well as to discover fascinating natural and cultural Balinese sites. Celukan Bawang port is quieter port than Benoa Port. The coast around the port is sloppy and rocky. The seabed consists of stony sand. The last port is Padang Bay. Most visitors have a chance to trip in order to spend the time around this port to see diving and snorkeling activities. This is also a convenient base from which to explore some of the wider attractions of East Bali. For over twenty years, as an independent group of companies, Pacific World Group has served a variety of tourist markets. Pacific World Nusantara provides highly suitable management services. They strive to provide product quality improvement, professional management and exceptional operations, placement on personal care and services. As the part of PT. Pacific World Nusantara, one of the departments in this company is Inter cruises. Inter cruises Shoreside & Port Services is a global business with experience in handling onshore voyages and handling services at the port for the newly arrived cruise ship industry and will tour or cruise ships that will only drive down and raise new passengers. The inter cruises team is committed to providing service and high dedication to clients in providing knowledge with global insights. Having delighted to discover that the Regent Seven Seas Voyager preserves the personal touch while offering a wider variety of facilities and activities. Regent Seven Seas Cruise is sailing from Sydney, Cruising the Tasman Sea, Mooloolaba, Cruising the Coral Sea, Airlie Beach, Townsville, Cairns, Cruising the Coral Sea, Alotau, Port Moresby, Cruising the Coral Sea, Cruising the Arafura Sea, Darwin, Cook Town, Cruising the Timor Sea, Komodo Island and Benoa Bali. Based on the background above, this paper analyzes qualitatively the research entitles “Procedure of Handling the Shore Excursion for Regent Seven Seas Cruises Voyager by Inter-Cruises Department at PT. Pacific World Nusantara” METHODS This research applies descriptive qualitative method analysis. The data used are primary and secondary data. Primary data is data that is directly obtained based on the participating observations when the author was holding on the job training for over than 3 months in PT. Pacific World Nusantara and actively involved in handling the cruise ship including direct interviews with the staff in charge for the cruise handling. Whereas, secondary data is data obtained from the all documents used during the handling process including email correspondences, bidding application of the cruise handling, and fill-in questionnaire on the whole cruise handling service by the cruise participants before they disembark onboard. Subsequent data were analyzed with qualitative descriptive methods based on an inductive methodological paradigm. That is, a paradigm that departs from something particular to general (Mahsun in Ginaya, 2018). By applying descriptive analysis method, the data that has been collected on the handling procedure of Regent Seven Seas Cruises Voyager by Inter-Cruises Department at PT. Pacific World Nusantara is elaborated in detail so that finally obtained a conclusion regarding the cruise handling procedure. The results of the study are presented with formal and informal methods. According to Sudaryanto in Ginaya (2018) informal presentation methods are presenting the results of analysis with JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 316 descriptions or ordinary words, while the formal presentation method is the formulation with signs and symbols. Sudaryanto (Ginaya, 2018) further states that symbols or signs are used to present or formulate the results of the analysis so that the meaning of the method, the relationship between the methods, and the characteristics of the method can be known and understood. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In this analysis will be discussed about the whole process of handling procedure endeavor of Regent Seven Seas Cruises Voyager by Inter-Cruises Department at PT. Pacific World Nusantara including what strategies are implemented by the Department in succeeding the whole process of the cruise handling. The handling procedure of shore excursions for Regent Seven Seas Cruise Voyager necessitates so much higher international standard either during preparation prior to the cruise arrival, tours upon its arrival, on departure as well as after departure itself that, in fact, Regent Seven Seas Cruise Voyager has exclusive standard operation tour and Inter-cruises team takes high concern to handle the shore excursion program for their clients. Inter cruises as a tour operator for Regent takes long period tour preparation before their arrival because there will be involve the local tourist attraction, local guide, port security, and many suppliers. 1. Preparation Before Arrival After approving the proposal from the operation manager that has been sent one year before sailing time of Regent, the tour manager at the ship sent final request of shore excursion departures via e-mail to operation manager when the sailing time of the cruise. This includes Shore Excursion Departures Request from the Ship. When the final request accepted by the operation manager, the operation manager sent the request from the ship to operation coordinator and send the e-mail update of tour summary program to the ship. The operation manager doing briefing accordance the email inquiry to operation coordinator and the operation coordinator started to handle the preparation. The request that comes from the e-mail will show the excursion that has selected by the client. Shore excursion departures request informs that will be 493 totals of guests on tour on 23 March 2018. The tours are select as follows: 1) BAJ – 001 Discover Bali (Tohpati Village, Mas Village, Balinese House Compound in Singapadu, Singapadu Puseh Temple, Bali Bird Park) 2) BAJ – 003 Bali Terrace & Ulun Danu Temple (Baha Village, Ulun Danu Temple, Passing by Batunye, Carang Sari, and Luk-Luk) 3) BAJ - 005 Royal Temple & Tanah Lot (Tohpati Village, Taman Ayun Temple, Tanah Lot Temple) 4) BAJ - 007 Balinese Arts & Crafts (Bona Village, Kemenuh Village, Peliatan Village, Celuk Village, Tohpati Village) JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 317 5) BAJ - 004 Balinese Cultural Experience (Balinese House Compound in Singapadu, Kemenuh Village, Dinner at Laka Leke Restaurant) 6) BAJ - 002 Tribal Dinner & Kecak Dance (Celuk Village, Bali Bird Park, Dinner at Bali Bird Park) 7) PVT – 914 Private Tour (Luk-luk Village, Tanah Lot Temple, Ubud,Sanur) In accordance with the e-mail inquiry, there would be three escort tours from the ship. They are Mr. Robert Pance from casino (3079), Mr. Tamzin Jacobs from reception (3109), and Traian Ciumacencu from destination service (3111). a. Transport Booking Request After the final update from the ship, the operation coordinator booked the transportation for the tour on that date. The transportation that required depends on the number total guests on tour. For Regent would be use bus with a capacity 28 seats and 35 seats. Total buses that have been booked are 5 buses with 28 seats and 16 buses with 35 seats. For the private tour used one car with a capacity for six people. E-mail confirmation of the booking transportation. The reply from transport agent as the follow up of the request. b. Restaurant Booking Request Furthermore, besides doing booking for transportation, the operation coordinator also has to book for the restaurant. There will two places for Regent‟s dinner that are Laka Leke Restaurant and Bali Starling Restaurant at Bali Bird Park. Laka Leke Restaurant includes in tour Balinese Cultural Experience and Bali Starling Restaurant includes in tour Tribal Dinner & Kecak Dance. Each restaurant has different concept for entertaining but similar type of food. Menu and entertainment detail at each restaurant (Attachment 5). When booking dinner, the operation coordinator will inform the restaurant for the special request from the client. E-mail booking for Laka Leke restaurant (Attachment 6) and e-mail booking for Bali Starling Restaurant at Bali Bird Park c. Tour Guide Preparation When the booking has made, next procedure is preparing for the tour guides. The operation manager with the operation coordinator and guide coordinator went to the meeting to discuss about the number of tour guide that would need for the excursion. After meeting there will be a decision how many tour guides needed. The guide coordinator will inform all the guides that have to be in charge for the tour. The guide coordinator gave a briefing for the guides 3 days before cruise arrival on 23 March 2018. There would be information the placement of each guide and documents that should be filled after the tour finish. There is a picture of meeting situation: JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 318 Figure 4.1 Meeting Guide Guide coordinator sent by e-mail the dispatch with the final confirmation name list of tour guide to the operation manager and the operation coordinator. In carrying out the job of the guides, they need some equipment, such as: 1) Name tag Figure 4.2 Guide‟s Name Tag Nametag for the guide is very important as identity for the guide. The aim for using nametag is also to make it easier for the clients remember the guide‟s name who handles their group of shore excursion. The operation coordinator prepares for the nametag accordance of guide name list that has confirmed by the guide coordinator. The nametag distributed at the port with the guide kit before the tour began. 2) Uniform Figure 4.3 Guide‟s Uniform Uniform showed company’s identity because every company has their own identity. Uniform also serve the client to make it easier for them recognizing JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 319 their guide during the excursion. The guide will distribute the uniform at meeting guide. 3) Guide kit. For the example the content of Guide Kit (Attachment 9) Guide kit consist of: a) Official tour summary b) Shore Excursions Escort Quality Survey c) G u i d e order d) Maps (30 pcs) The operation coordinator prepares for 25 pcs of guide kit because there will be 25 tour guides in charge during the day of excursion. Every guide gets one of the guide kits and handles group tour in one bus until the excursion finish. There would be tour guide for hospitality desk on the ship. Hospitality desk placed at the ship when the tour begins until the tour ends. The guide kits are distributed at the port before briefing and tour began. d. Preparing Sign Excursion After preparing the guide, the operation coordinator will prepare for the sign the bus (Attachment 10). The sign consists of name of the tour, number of the bus, Regent’s logo, and Inter-cruises logo. In every bus, there would be three signs, there are first sign placed at in the front of the bus, second is on the left side of the bus, and the last placed on the back of the bus. The guide coordinator prepares the sign of Inter cruises for identity of the bus. The Inter-cruises sign placed at in front of the bus. Every bus or car that enters into the inner port parking area should have Inter-cruises sign because Inter cruises is the official tour operator that handle Regent Seven Seas Cruise Voyager. Sign banner for welcoming the cruise would be set up at the port. e. Preparing Excursion Supporting Facilities When all the sign is complete, the operation coordinator continued to prepare the mineral water, raincoat, and wet tissue. Every guest gets one mineral water and wet tissue during the tour. The operation coordinator preparing for 30 packs of raincoat and wet tissue because in this case there will be 21 buses, the rest of raincoat and wet tissue for the backed up would be at the port. In every packs of rain coat and wet tissue adjusted due the number of the total guests at the bus. Mineral water, raincoat, and wet tissue would be set up at the day the cruise arrives in Bali. The last thing that should be prepared is sarong. Especially for the excursion that visited the temple, inter cruises providing sarong for the guest. In this case is Discover Bali. For the total of the guests who request visited Singapadu Puseh Temple is 27 people. The operation coordinator prepares for 30 pcs of sarong and place 15 pcs in each 2 bus that will go to Discover Bali excursion. After all of the things already checked and complete, the operation coordinator would be setting up everything for backed up and put to the box that will be taken and placed at the port. f. Payment JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 320 At this time, the finance manager gave the operation manager money cash advance for the excursion operation accordance the shore excursion departures request. Money cash advance used for payment to the tourist attraction, ticket parking, toilet payment at the tourist attraction, and for staff lunch. Except for lunch at the restaurant, the payment transferred after the operation finish. The details of the tour that need for money cash advance are as follows: a. Bali Terrace & Ulun Danu Advancing: Gusde Ticket: Ulun Danu Temple IDR 30.000 Total Guest on Tour: 97Total: IDR 3.000.000 b. Royal Temple and Tanah Lot Advancing: Edy Ticket: Royal Temple IDR 20.000 Tanah Lot Temple IDR 60.000 Total Guest on Tour: 149 Total: IDR 12.190.000 The other payments will transfer to the bank account of the company. 2. Handling Procedure on Arrival Stating of attachment 2, the cruise arrived at 12.00 o’clock. Before the cruise arrives, inter-cruises team doing a final check for the preparation and briefing at the office for all staff whom in charge for this excursion. At 9.00 o’clock, inter- cruises team went to the Benoa port for the preparation. The operation manager and the operation coordinator come to the port office in Benoa for briefing anchor time for the cruise. Figure 4.4 Checked Buses At the same time, while the operation coordinator and the operation staff setting up the bus and the supplies, Guide coordinator with the operation manager doing final briefing for all tour guides. Guide coordinator distributes the guide kit and nametag for all tour guides. JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 321 Figure 5.5 Briefing Tour Guide The operation manager briefing the tour program and lunch program for the guide who lead the guests to the Laka Leke Restaurant and Bali Starling Restaurant. The list of the food special request is already at the guide kit for excursion that going to Laka Leke Restaurant and Bali Starling Restaurant. When the cruise arrive, tour manager from the ship will meet the operation manager to make sure all the preparation is complete before the guests comes out from the ship for the excursion. After all the preparation has done, tour manager informs the crew on the ship to call the guest on the ship to come out accordance to their card number. All of Inter-cruises team stands by at the port to direct the guest to the bus and bring the sign of cruise. The guest will bring the card number accordance the bus number that they will use during the excursion. The card number brought by the guest is a voucher for excursion from the ship. Tour guide will take it when the guest enters the bus and handed back to the ship later. Figure 4.6 Welcoming the Guests The group that comes out first is Balinese Cultural Experience tour. They will depart from the port at 15.30. First, they visited Balinese House for sightseeing at Singapadu Village for 30 minutes. Then visited Kemenuh Village for explore and shopping at the wood carving gallery. In addition, the last is visited Laka Leke Restaurant for the dinner. Tour Guide has to make sure the special request for the guest before they start the dinner. Dinner will last for 2.30 hours. After finished, the tour returned to the hotel and arrived at the port at 21.30. Moreover, the last is the excursion that going to Tribal Dinner & Kecak Dance tour. They will depart from the port at 15.30 from the port and visited Celuk Village to see silver smith. After that, they went to Bali Bird Park to enjoy the bird show and dinner there. After dinner, they back to the port and arrived at 20.30. JASTH - Journal of Applied Sciences in Travel and Hospitality Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2018 322 After all the procedure during shore excursion finish, operation staff who in charge to advancing to destination had to make a financial report to the operation coordinator. Operation coordinator reported to the operation manager and finance manager for money cash advance. After the report has done, the operation coordinator also had to sort all document in guide kit and filling the document for the records. Doing a filling document help inter cruises to review the activities during the shore excursion and follow up the complaint from the guest. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS From the discussion above about the handling procedure of the shore excursion for Regent Seven Seas Cruise Voyager, it can be concluded that the whole process of the shore excursions starts from preparation before arrival including Shore Excursion Departures Requested from the Ship and after final request accepted, the operation manager sent the request from the ship to operation coordinator and then sent update of tour summary program to the ship. The next step is the preparation prior to the on-site execution, such as transportation booking request, restaurant booking request, tour guide preparation, preparing sign excursion, preparing excursion supporting facilities, and payment. Handling procedure on arrival was starting from where before the cruise arrives, inter-cruises team was doing a final check for the preparation and briefing at the office for all staff whom in charge for this excursion. The execution of cruise handling on site started from welcoming the guests and during shore excursion the tour began and all the staff started doing their job and responsibility about their job. There would be staff went to advance, prepare the dinner, and stay at the port to monitor the situation. Finally, the handling procedure after shore excursion completed the operation staff reported a feedback from the escorts and made a financial report to the operation coordinator. Some suggestions can be stated concerning the handling procedure, such as clear job and responsibilities are needed in accordance with the position with the result that the jobs running well during the preparation, during the tour, and during procedure after arrival. 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