The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry plans to allocate the bulk of
its promotion spending on targeting tourists across Asia next year as the
eurozone crisis shows no sign of quick resolution in the
near future.
Deputy Tourism and Creative
Economy Minister Sapta Nirwandar said the countries would include ASEAN
countries, Australia, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan.
“We are going to focus our
promotion and marketing activities in Asia and Australia because the growth [of
tourist arrivals] from these regions is good. The growth [in Asia and
Australia] can offset the decreasing number of tourist arrivals from Europe,”
Sapta said in Jakarta on Saturday on the sidelines of the Indonesia Tourism and
Creative Economy Fair (ITCEF) 2012.
According to the Central
Statistics Agency (BPS), neighboring Malaysia and Singapore are the biggest
tourist contributors to Indonesia. The agency recorded 704,644 Malaysians and
788,249 Singaporeans visiting the country during the first-eight months of this
year. Both booked approximately 7 percent increases from the same period last
year.
Tourists from China and Thailand
grew by 25.54 percent and 10.89 percent, respectively, from January to August
this year compared to the same period last year. The agency recorded that
412,698 Chinese and 55,847 Thais came to Indonesia, especially Bali and
Yogyakarta, during the period.
Strong growth was also recorded
from the Philippines with 74,492 tourists from that country visiting Indonesia
in the first-eight months of 2012, up by 12.02 percent from the same period in
2011.
“The Philippines is one of the
best markets in ASEAN and we do believe we will see more Filipinos coming to
our country next year,” he said.
He said the ministry would
conduct more sales missions, direct selling and participate in international
festivals and events in those countries.
Meanwhile, BPS data showed
decreasing tourist arrivals from European Union (EU) countries, especially the
Netherlands, one of Indonesia’s traditional tourist markets.
The agency recorded 99,601
tourists from the Netherlands from January to August 2012, a 5.65 percent
decrease from the same period last year.
France and Germany were countries
in Western Europe that showed growth with the number of tourists from both
countries increasing by 3.83 percent and 8.08 percent, respectively, as of
August this year.
Before the crisis hit the
continent, tourist arrivals from Europe grew by around 15 to 20 percent a year,
he said.
“But, we will still promote
Indonesia’s best destinations to Europe because we have to maintain this
market; they remain important to us,” he added.
He said the ministry, together
with the Indonesian Tourism Board (BPPI), was going to conduct aggressive
marketing activities in Europe only in Russia because it was a promising market
and relatively crisis-resilient.
The BPS data showed as many as
59,294 Russian tourists visited the country during January–August this year, up
by almost 6 percent from the same period last year.
BPPI chairwoman Wiryanti
Sukamdani said that they would share the task of entering the targeted markets.
In Russia for instance, the BPPI
would focus their promotion in St. Petersburg while the ministry would manage
the market in Moscow.
“Russia is a big country and we
realize that we cannot work alone to penetrate the market. So, task-sharing is
the best strategy,” Wiryanti said.
The task-sharing method was also
implemented in the Chinese market. The government focused on the northern part
of China while the BPPI worked on the southern end, she said.
The number of tourist arrivals
from January to August was 5.21 million, a 5 percent increase from the 4.96
million in the same period last year.
From that figure, 3.39 million tourists came from Asia and Australia.
The government has set a target
of attracting 9 million foreign tourists in 2013, a 12.5 percent increase from
this year’s target of 8 million.
The government is optimistic
about reaching the target because Indonesia will host world-class events
including the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meeting, Miss World
2013, the World Cultural Forum and the World Trade Organization (WTO) Meeting.
Nurfika Osman
Business & Investment Opportunities
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