ER
INDONESIA is trying to boost the number of tourist arrivals from Malaysia and Singapore at the end of 2019 by carrying out a number of activities, one of which is by cooperating with the Traveloka hotel and ticket booking platform through the “Amazing Deals to Indonesia” event.
According to Rizki Handayani, Deputy of Marketing Development I, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy in Jakarta said we are targeting Malaysia and Singapore because the two countries are the highest contributors to the number of foreign tourists to Indonesia. Until October 2019, as many as 241,100 tourists from Malaysia came to Indonesia, equivalent to 17.80 percent of the total foreign tourists visiting Indonesia.
“While in the same period, Singapore tourists visiting Indonesia numbered 145,200 people or 10.27 percent of the total foreign tourists visiting Indonesia. Through “Amazing Deals to Indonesia”, it is expected that the Malaysian tourist market will grow by 20 percent by the end of this year while Singapore tourists can penetrate around 11 percent of the total foreign tourists visiting Indonesia,” she said.
Traveloka Amazing Deals
The “Traveloka Amazing Deals” program offers discounts to Traveloka’s end-to-end products and services ranging from accommodation, transportation and accommodation packages to Xperience.
“Traveloka users in Malaysia and Singapore will get discounts of up to 20 percent from hotels joining the program. There are also additional discounts provided through discount coupons,” said John Safenson, Traveloka Accommodation Management VP.
Tourist destinations in Indonesia offered include Medan, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Solo, Bandung, Bali, Lombok and Surabaya. The offer period is valid from 1 to 31 December 2019.
John said Traveloka hotel partners were enthusiastic about joining the program because they could get promotional opportunities in both countries. There are more than 100 hotel partners spread throughout Indonesia who are participating and are ready to accommodate tourists from Malaysia and Singapore.
As additional support, Tourism Ministry will post bidding boards in more than 30 billboard points scattered in strategic locations in the two countries, including Orchard Road Singapore, Bukit Bintang Malaysia to Changi International Airport and Kuala Lumpur.
As one of the Unicorn companies originally pioneered in Indonesia, Traveloka is optimistic that the target to boost the number of tourists to the country can be achieved. At present, there are 400,000 Traveloka users in Malaysia, with 10 percent of hotel user transactions in Malaysia going to Indonesian destinations.
“As for Singapore, 45 percent of Traveloka’s loyal customer transactions in Singapore are for hotels in Indonesia,” said John.
Profile of tourists from Malaysia and Singapore
According to Tourism Ministry data, most Malaysian tourists come to Indonesia for a vacation with an expenditure per day can reach US$ 120 more. Tourists from Malaysia can spend up to five days while on vacation in Indonesia.
They usually have a character who likes to shop, go in groups both with family and friends, choose a budget hotel and go on a plane at an affordable price. Malaysian tourists are also reluctant to travel far.
Malaysian tourists most like to do rural and urban tourism activities, culinary, cultural, and spiritual. Same with tourists from Malaysia, tourists from Singapore are also happy to come to Indonesia for a vacation with expenses reaching US$ 160 a day.
Singaporean tourists can spend four days on vacation in Indonesia. In contrast to Malaysian tourists, Singaporean tourists like to travel individually and prefer to stay in four-star hotels even though they both like to ride planes at low cost. Singaporean tourists prefer to do rural and urban tourism activities, culinary, cultural, events and sports and health.
However, the challenge for Indonesia in boosting the number of tourists from the two countries is the lack of reaching ethnic and non-Malay tourists.
“There is still potential for foreign tourists with ethnic Chinese and Indians. This is what we have to reiterate. So far, tourists from both countries who are ethnic Chinese have fled to countries as far away as Japan, Korea, Europe, if we go to Bali the most,” Rizki said.
Currently the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has changed its strategy in attracting foreign tourists to Indonesia. If previously foreign tourists were lured by a style of pleasure to relax and take a break to calm down, now Kemenparekraf is keen to increase the agenda of events that are lifestyle.
“Foreign tourists are now looking at trips not only for slums at hotels but also for the sake of lifestyle, for example running events, people come all the way not to relax, but to run, the world has changed,” he said.
Until the end of 2019, Indonesia is targeting foreign tourists visiting Indonesia to reach 18 million with a foreign exchange target of US$20 million. Until now, Rizki noted the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia has reached 16, 5 million visitors.
According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), in 2017, the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia was only 14.04 million, or missed the target of 15 million. Whereas in 2018, BPS recorded that the number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2018 was only 15.81 million, still not reaching the target of 17 million foreign tourists visiting the same year.
“One of our strategies next year to boost the number of foreign tourist arrivals is to open flight routes from Singapore to Belitung with Jetstar, and of course there will be other hot deals later,” Rizki said. [antaranews / special photo]
