Tourism New Zealand’s newest promotional video featuring James Cameron and his wife walking the Routeburn Track in South Island, New Zealand
INDONESIA and New Zealand have signed an MoU in display of their commitment to boost travel between the two countries.
The MoU, signed by Arief Yahya, Indonesia’s tourism minister, and Todd McClay, New Zealand’s trade minister, in Jakarta on July 18, covers areas such as human resource development, information exchange, destination and tourism product development, marketing and promotions.
In addition, both countries agreed to engage in greater cooperation in regional and international forums.
Commenting on the signing, I Gde Pitana, deputy minister for international marketing development at the Indonesia Ministry of Tourism, said: “(Traffic between the two countries) is still small, but we could make it better, especially through tourism. The MoU is a milestone to enhance cooperation.”
He expects that the number of New Zealanders travelling to Indonesia would increase, especially in light of visa exemptions and the easing of regulation for yachting in the country.
There were around 17,000 Indonesian arrivals to New Zealand during the fiscal year ending May 2016, while around 79,000 Kiwis visited Indonesia in the same period.
Despite weaker arrivals into New Zealand, Steven Dixon, Tourism New Zealand’s regional manager South & South East Asia, said things are looking up. “If we look back at the last five years, we have seen the market grow about 65 per cent.”
According to Dixon, Tourism New Zealand intends to continue boosting demand from Indonesia through branding, public relations and cooperation with the trade.
He further urged the travel trade to work closely with agents from Indonesia to “create compelling packages to market New Zealand”.
As well, the tourism promotion body will bring Kiwi Link, a B2B training exchange, to Jakarta this October for the first time.
“The New Zealand trade would introduce their products to their Indonesian counterparts and learn from the Indonesian trade on the characteristics of Indonesian travellers,” commented Dixon.
