JAKARTA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian tourism ministry is planning to hold sales mission to tap market potentialities in southern Chinese cities, an official at the ministry said here on Tuesday.
Besides showcasing variety of Indonesian traditional and cultural performances, the sales mission program slated from May 7 to 9 in Zhuhai and Meizhou would sell tour packages of Bali and the nation's new 10 destinations, namely Tanjung Kelayang, Tanjung Lesung, Thousands Island, Lake Toba, Bromo-Tengger-Semeru volcanoes, Labuan Bajo, Morotai, Borobudur Temple, Wakatobi and Batam-Bintan.
"Focus of the upcoming sales mission is to further promote Indonesia's 10 new destinations. We expect to get optimal package sales so as to significantly contribute to the nation's targets on China tourism market," Assistant Deputy Minister Great China Marketing Development Vincensius Jemadu said.
Indonesia expects to gain significant slice from China's enormous outbound market to plug its foreign tourist arrival target set at 20 million this year.
According to an official report, China's outbound tourists were recorded at 149.72 million ones last year, or 14.7 percent higher than a year earlier.
Continuing their domination in Indonesia's foreign tourist visit in the last several years, arrival of Chinese tourists in Indonesia has grown 2.71 percent in 2018 to 2,137,450 ones from 2,093,171 ones in 2017.
Apart from active sales mission and tourism promotion programs held in China, Indonesia also uses Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand as hubs to maximize arrivals of Chinese tourists into the country.
Establishing cooperation with local tour agents, Indonesia expects to get Chinese tourists wishing to continue their vacations to Indonesian destinations from those three neighboring countries in the region.
Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have recorded tremendous Chinese tourists visit last year. Statistics agencies in the respective countries noted that Singapore received 3.18 million ones, Malaysia 2.2 million ones and Thailand 8.9 million throughout last year.
