Quote:
Originally Posted by nono1973
.. ,and till today,the ferry prices from Sillypore to Batam Center are still cheaper as compare to from Sillypore to Harbour Bay. I have always wonder thruout 2014 that how come it is so. Travelling time and distance from Sillypore to Harbour Bay is shorter,lesser time used,and the ferry uses lesser petrol but yet the price to reach Harbour Bay is ALL THE TIME higher as compare to heading to Batam center.I mean it doesnt make any economic sense right?
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this is very interesting topic. and in fact, i found it quite fascinating that ferry ticket is the only thing that price can go cheaper other than currency exchange.. (not to mention petrol price up and down recently)
to answer your question, why horizon ferry is more expensive than batam center ferries, it is because the terminal.
Harbourbay is private owned terminal meanwhile batam center and sekupang international ferry terminal is cenghu's owned terminal wavemaster used to owned the solo right to operating at harbourbay but replaced by prima ferries a.k.a horizon ferry. in addition to prima ferries, batam fast also operating but on very limited trip per day. Even though the distance is shorter, (technically lesser petrol) the price is still more expensive because the licensing fee could be different.. like how budget airline charge terminal tax differently for different departing airport.
Then, back to my topic.. why ferry fare can go cheaper compare to few years ago,. this one you have to give it to competition. i think it started from sindo ferry give discount $10 for flashing ntuc card, then wavemaster go full force to sell at $38. but this is only apply for singaporean or to be more precisely if you bought the ticket from signapore side (harbourfront).
From batam side, it has been while the fare is always around $30 (if you bought ferry voucher from money changer, not from terminal ticket counter). meaning if you bought ferry voucher, you only pay $30 (or less depends on the ferry operator) for the round trip.. and this is only available from batam..
Why? this is to boost the passenger from batam side or from indonesian side. Since the day sgd has hike to more than rp8500/$1, it has impacted a lot on number of visitor from batam side.. so in order to boost passenger from batam side, they start lowering the ferry fare from batam side.. but not from sg side.. $48 to singaporean probably doesn't cost so much, but to ordinary batam worker, it could be 25% or 20% of their monthly salary. If they don't do that,, the ferry may bring full pack of visitor from sg, but empty ferry when departing from batam.. same goes for returning trip..
Prima ferries itself has started it few years ago.. it charge indonesian passport holder for $38($17/Rp165k + $21) if you bought your ticket from harbourbay batam. if you bought from harbourfront, it still $48 regardless what passport that you're holding.