With improvement in air connectivity between India and Indonesia looking likely, Indonesia Tourism has decided to enhance their engagement in the India market in the coming months. According to Sapta Nirwandar, Director General - Tourism Marketing, Indonesia Tourism, the tourism board has decided to more than double their investments in the Indian market to attract more visitors to Indonesia.
When asked about their marketing strategies, Nirwandar said that they will be employing a “horizontal approach” rather than a “vertical approach.” He said that the promotional activities will be targeted at their target segments such as Wedding, Adventure Sports, Golf and Honeymooners, rather than big budget advertising in international media.
“India is one of the top 10 source markets for Indonesia, but the inbound figures are still low compared to the potential of the market,” stated Nirwandar. About 142,000 Indians visited Indonesia in 2010. The tourism board has set a target of 160,000 arrivals from India this year.
He said that the new air agreement signed between the two countries enables Indian and Indonesian carriers to ply to four cities in each other’s countries. He hoped for some airline companies to come forward and offer increased connectivity between the two countries. He said that there were talks going on between Indonesia’s national carrier Garuda and Jet Airways for some code sharing partnerships for destinations like Jakarta and Bali. Although there is no direct connectivity, Nirwandar said that Thai Airways, Malaysian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Air Asia, etc. offer good connectivity to some of the important Indonesian cities.
Speaking about Indonesia’s tourism offerings, the Director General said that Indonesia has a lot of attractions beyond Jakarta and Bali, the two most popular and visited destinations by Indian travelers. “Indonesia is truly a value for money destination for Indian travelers not just because of its unique nature, culture, food and hospitable people, but also the strong exchange value of the Indian Rupee compared to Indonesian Rupiah,” he added.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment