JAKARTA’S tourism authority is harnessing the power of social media in its latest bid to court tech-savvy Singaporean travellers.
In town yesterday to meet a group of Singapore-based bloggers, Cucu Ahmad Kurnia, promotion director of the Jakarta City Government Tourism, said: “We know Singapore is a very ‘techie’ country and social media will be the best way to increase awareness and grab their attention.”
Jakarta City Government Tourism will be hosting all 15 bloggers in Jakarta this month and give them a “taste of Indonesia through shopping and culinary adventures over 12 days”.
“Singapore is generally very similar to Jakarta in terms of habits and lifestyle so (Singaporeans) can relate well to us,” Cucu said.
He said this is the first time the tourism body is utilising blogging as a tool for destination promotion, Singapore was its pilot project. He added that his organisation would assess the results of this campaign before extending it to other countries.
He said: “There is still the perception that Jakarta is an unsafe destination and we want to overturn this mindset. (Promotion) becomes more intimate when bloggers share their first-hand experiences with their readers, and this can help us increase interest from Singapore.”
Apart from utilising blogs, Cucu said Jakarta will be rolling out its newly revamped website by end of this year, which contains interactive features for more “two-way communication”.
Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia in August increased capacity on the Singapore-Jakarta route by deploying larger aircraft to meet strong demand (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 30, 2013).
