INDONESIA’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy is planning to organise a travel fair targeted at local youth, and will also attempt to persuade the government to introduce additional public holidays, in a bid to boost the domestic travel industry.
Speaking at a press conference in Jakarta yesterday, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy director general of destination development, Firmansyah Rahim, said: “The demand for travel during school holiday seasons and long weekends is high. We need to encourage the young travellers, especially students, to travel within the country.”
“Therefore, we are taking a number of steps to boost the market.”
Firstly, private sector organisations will be invited to organise a special travel mart for youth travellers, in cooperation with the ministry. “We invite the travel trade to come up with special offers and packages designed for students, with (discounted) fares,” said Rahim.
The ministry is also working on establishing additional long weekend holiday periods in Indonesia, either by declaring public holidays on single working days sandwiched between an existing public holiday and a weekend, or by declaring the following Monday a non-working day whenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday.
