INDONESIA MUST PROMOTE TOURISM POTENTIALS AT PATA TRAVEL MART

by Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, June 30 (Antara) -- With the ambitious goal of increasing foreign tourist arrivals to 20 million by 2019, Indonesia must enhance its tourism promotional activities and take advantage of the PATA Travel Mart it will host next year.          Last week, President Joko Widodo had called for an increase in tourism promotional activities, urging his aides to find ways to attract more foreign tourists to the country.          He had stated that the national economic slowdown should be countered with an increase in the number of tourist arrivals. Therefore, tourism industries should be developed further.          After all, developing the tourism industry will be much cheaper than developing industries in the manufacturing sector.          The development of the tourism sector must be intensified as it is cheaper than developing the manufacturing field, an official of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) remarked on Tuesday.          "The development of industries, especially manufacturing industries, takes a relatively long time and a large budget. However, we already have the requirements for the tourism sector," Deputy Chairman of Kadin Rosan Perkasa Roeslani stated.            Therefore, Indonesia, which is set to host the world's largest tourism promotional event, the PATA Travel Mart, next year should take the opportunity to promote its potentials to lure tourism investors and markets.          According to reports, Indonesia has been selected to host the biggest Asia-Pacific tourism and trade exhibition in 2016, the PATA Travel Mart, which will be organized by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).          CEO of PATA Mario Hardy visited Jakarta to discuss the event to be held in 2016 with the PATA Indonesia Chapter. In a meeting on Saturday, Hardy set a target of drawing in one thousand delegations from 60 countries to participate in the event.          On Thursday (June 25), Hardy and PATA Indonesia Chapter met with Governor of Jakarta Basuki Tjahaja Purnama at City Hall to discuss PATA Travel Mart 2016.          The initiative was warmly welcomed by Purnama.          "It is an honor for us that PATA chose Jakarta to organize this great international event and also to promote tourism in Indonesia," the governor asserted.          Founded in 1951, PATA is an internationally-acclaimed, non-profit association that serves to ensure responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia-Pacific region.          The association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research, and innovative events to its member organizations. They comprise 87 government, state, and city tourism bodies, 31 international airlines, air sport and cruise lines, 61 educational institutions, and hundreds of travel industry companies in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.          In addition, thousands of travel professionals belong to the 43 local PATA chapters worldwide.          Moreover, PATA Travel Mart is the association's signature event and the premier travel show of the Asia-Pacific. It provides networking and contracting opportunities to help travel and tourism organizations access decision-makers, meet new clients, expand their network, and build or maintain existing relationships.          "Jakarta will host the 39th PATA Travel Mart, while the 38th leg of the event will be held in Bangalore, India, from September 6 to 8," Hardy revealed.          The event is the mainstay activity of the association. It is one of the leading trade and travel exhibitions in the Asia-Pacific region. It displays products and services of travel industries in the region.          This year's exhibition will feature a technology pavilion that will serve as a business platform for travel technology professionals to feature their products and services to both PATA members and stakeholders in the industry.          It will also facilitate more than 10,000 pre-matched appointments and bring together qualified international buyers and sellers for face-to-face meetings, educational forums, and networking functions.          This event will provide good opportunities for Indonesia to further develop its tourism industries.  The country has a lot of attractive tourist destinations.          Several regions already have an advantage of tourist destinations, with supporting infrastructure facilities and their good management the only remaining requirement.          Deputy Chairman of Kadin Roeslani pointed out that based on the government's projection, the tourism sector will serve as the main foreign exchange earner in 2019. "Therefore, we need supporting infrastructure facilities for tourism. Developing ports of international standards that can accommodate overseas cruisers is one of them," he affirmed.          Furthermore, Vice President Jusuf Kalla has urged for innovations to develop Indonesia's tourist destinations. These innovations should be adopted in various regions in the country to attract foreign tourists.         "Tourism is a very easy business because it does not need huge capital injection," Kalla remarked during his address at the Indonesia Attractiveness Awards event on Friday (June 12).         He added that tourism did not require large funding because its main capital, beautiful natural landscapes and people's hospitable nature, was God-given.         Earlier, Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya had expressed optimism that foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia will exceed the set target of 10 million and will reach at least the 10.5 million mark.         "Our target of foreign tourist arrivals this year is 10 million, but I am confident it will exceed it by the end of the year because the number of foreign tourist arrivals in six months has reached 500 thousand," Minister Yahya said on Wednesday (June 24).     ***1*** (A014/INE) EDITED BY INE (T.SYS/B/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 30-06-2015 21:37:2