INDONESIA is stepping up its courtship of the Indian weddings market, with marketing efforts going beyond major cities and now extending to B2C.
“We have embarked on B2B initiatives during our sales missions, which will continue, but we will also introduce a B2C interface to garner a larger number of visitors from India,” said Iyunu Masruroh, deputy director of international tourism promotion for Asia, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Indonesia.
Trade initiatives include taking roadshows beyond metropolises to Tier 1 cities, fam trips, and offering links to DMCs who can offer ground and logistic services for groups and weddings.
Iyunu said Indonesia is also working with Indian outbound tour group operators and wedding planners to that end.
Alok Teng, director of LH Travels Bali, commented: “Currently Indonesia hosts about 30 Indian weddings (mostly in Bali), but more than half originate from the Indian expatriate community residing in the Middle East, Hong Kong or the UK. We are looking at attracting more wedding groups from India.”
TTG Asia e-Daily understands that Indonesia will focus on promoting Bali for such destination weddings, as it is populated mostly by Hindus, making it a more suitable destination.
Indian arrivals grew 18.9 per cent year-on-year in 1H2014, according to the tourism ministry.
On the leisure front, Iyunu said: “We are trying to promote itineraries other than Bali, like Jakarta-Bandung and Bali-Jogjakarta-Solo for the Indian FIT.”
Mahesh K Saharia, honorary consul of the Republic of Indonesia, added: “It is imperative that Garuda Indonesia should start a flight to New Delhi in 2015, not only to promote tourism but also to encourage trade between the two countries.”
