Indonesia makes beeline for Singapore students

THE INDONESIAN Ministry of Culture and Tourism is planning to lure the Singapore student market to secondary destinations such as Bandung and Jogjakarta.

Chrismiastuti, the ministry’s deputy director of promotion ASEAN region, said: “The Singapore market is quite different from the other markets to Jogjakarta and Bandung (such as Malaysia and Thailand, which are interested in factory outlet shopping and culinary tours).”

“We need to tap a different market segment and students have potential.”

According to Chrismiastuti, Bandung and its surrounding areas in West Java offer a number of locations suitable for teambuilding, such as along Citarik River, while tourism villages are the highlight in Jogjakarta.

“We will invite (Singapore) school teachers who are in charge of such programmes on familiarisation trips (to Bandung and Jogjakarta),” she said.

She added that the ministry would seek help from agents who conduct student tours to plan the relevant marketing and promotional initiatives.

Batavia Air recently launched thrice-weekly Bandung-Singapore flights, and agents in Bandung have been talking about SilkAir’s plan to launch a similar service in September.

At the moment, AirAsia connects Singapore with Bandung and Jogjakarta.

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