Indonesia is proposing to work with Singapore on a “twin destination” marketing and promotion opportunity by leveraging the Lion City’s hub position to help revive its tourism industry.
Speaking at the first Wonderful Indonesia sales mission in Singapore held recently, Ratna Lestari Harjana, minister counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Singapore, shared that her office was exploring opportunities with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
Ratna elaborated: “We can revive Indonesia’s tourism industry by utilising Singapore’s positioning as a hub and financial centre, where there are many daily direct flights (to Indonesia).”
This way, business and leisure travellers can visit Singapore, travel onward to Indonesia, before returning to Singapore and heading home, Ratna posited. In addition, Singapore is also Indonesia’s third-largest source market.
Indonesia’s minister of tourism and creative economy Sandiaga Uno said that it would be a “good partnership” if discussions panned out.
One way how a the “twin destination” marketing could work, Sandiaga said, was a visitor from the UK could offset his carbon footprint by planting a tree in Singapore, if it was not possible in Indonesia.
STB’s representative at the Wonderful Indonesia sales mission told TTG Asia that initial discussions were interrupted by the pandemic, but both sides can now start “exploratory discussions”.
