THE Bali and Beyond Travel Fair (BBTF) 2014 is on track for a successful show with the number of buyers already exceeding the target for its inaugural edition, scheduled to take place from June 10 to 14.
At a press conference last Thursday, BBTF’s organising committee reported that some 360 buyers from South-east Asia, Indonesia, Europe and India represented have signed up, with each region represented by between 40 and 90 buyers each.
Tanto Ruwiyadi, deputy chairman, BBTF organising committee, said: “This is higher than our initial target of 300 buyers. Even then, registration is still on until we reach a maximum of 400 buyers or nearly equal with the number of sellers.”
BBTF is organised by the Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) Bali Chapter and Bali tourism stakeholders, supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. Comprising two days of B2B sessions at Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center and a two-day B2C travel fair at BeachWalk shopping complex in Kuta, the show aims to draw 450 sellers.
The travel fair is meant to promote travel around Indonesia with Bali as a gateway. However, only 10 per cent of the total 441 sellers currently registered are from outside Bali.
I Ketut Ardana, chairman of ASITA Bali Chapter and counsellor of BBTF organising committee, said: “Therefore, we are inviting more participants from other parts of Indonesia to achieve the goal. There is still time to register.
“We have carefully selected the buyers and many of them are buying Bali and beyond products.”
Tanto explained that buyers were divided into three tiers according to how many travellers they send to Indonesia each year, each tier coming with different privileges and conditions.
“This way we can guarantee the quality of the buyers, and they include the big names like TUI and Meyer,” Tanto said. So far there are 33 fully hosted buyers.
