Indonesia Targets European Tourist in Order to Increase Foreign Exchange

News24xx.com - Tourism activist, Taufan Rahmadi welcomed the strategy of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) to attract tourists from Europe and the United States compared to tourists from China and Asean countries. He said if tourists from Europe and the United States had the potential to provide more foreign exchange for Indonesia compared to tourists from China.

"European countries, the Middle East, America, they (tourists) come to Indonesia complete with all the amenities and they have an itinerary that certainly makes their spending high," he continued.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Wishnutama said that this strategy was tried by Kemenparekraf because it was known that the number of tourist arrivals from China in Indonesia was weakening. It is suspected that the weakening occurred along with the increasing tension of trade war between China and the US.

"We must not merely (rely on tourists) from China. We will aim for countries in Europe such as the United Kingdom. This market is not yet being worked on at this time," Wishnutama explained, quoted by Tempo (26 Dec).

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the number of foreign tourists from Europe from January to October 2019 was recorded at 1,776,476 people, increasing slightly from the previous year which was 1,744,875 people.

For the number of tourist arrivals from China from January to October 2019 there were 1,772,365 people. While in the same period in 2018 and 2017 there were 1,701,438 and 1,871,010 people.

Taufan assessed that tourist destinations in Indonesia are very famous for their cultural heritage, history, and natural beauty. All of that according to him is very much in accordance with what is sought by foreign tourists from Europe and the United States if they want to vacation. Therefore, Taufan hopes that the government through Kemenparekraf will continue to innovate in order to attract foreign tourists.

"This is talking about market segmentation, where money is not the issue (money is not a problem) but what is important is the quality of our services in tourist destinations," said Taufan.

The most important homework owned by the government is how to improve the readiness of existing amenities so that tourists from abroad continue to arrive in Indonesia. Moreover, the government has launched a grouping of premium and super premium destinations. Amenitas is a facility that can be used by a tourist while visiting a destination.

NEWS24XX.COM/CTR