INDONESIA’S overseas tourism marketing representatives want regional tourism offices in the country to be more proactive in promoting its new products and destinations.
According to feedback from Visit Indonesia Tourist Officers (VITO) from 10 countries who attended a recent Indonesia Ministry of Culture and Tourism marketing workshop, tour operators in their respective markets were of the opinion that current initiatives to raise awareness and product knowledge were insufficient.
“The tour operators have been asking what is new in Indonesia,” said VITO country manager for the Netherlands, Susan van Egmond. “They have also been asking when the Sumatara fam trip (originally scheduled for last year following Garuda Indonesia’s inaugural service to Amsterdam) will materialise.”
VITO Malaysia manager Mohd Shafie Obet said: “Bandung has been doing very well, so we would like the regional tourist office in West Java to send us more information on places like Garut and Tasikmalaya.
He added: “Riau Islands is (our) closest neighbour, but the potential has not been optimised. I invite the regional government to inform us of events in Batam a few months before the dates for us to promote in Malaysia.”
The Indonesia tourism ministry’s director general of destination development, Firmansyah Rahim, said there were currently two major programmes in place to facilitate communication on new products and destinations.
“The first one is to develop a travel planner for Indonesia. We are collecting travel planners from the regions, with the emphasis on new products,” he said.
“We are also doing destination management organisation programme in 15 destinations such as Sabang, Raja Ampat, Jakarta Old Town, Toraja and Rinjani. This is basically integrated destination management, bottom up, putting forward stakeholders’ ownership.”
