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Ministry betting on Manchester United

The Culture and Tourism Ministry is currently seeking ways to stamp its Visit Indonesia Year 2009 logo on the jersey of the English soccer team Manchester United during its tour of China, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia

(The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, May 14, 2009

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Ministry betting on Manchester United

T

he Culture and Tourism Ministry is currently seeking ways to stamp its Visit Indonesia Year 2009 logo on the jersey of the English soccer team Manchester United during its tour of China, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Sapta Nirwandar, the ministry's director general for marketing, said on Wednesday the strategy could lure foreign tourists into Indonesia, and it was estimated it might attract up to 300,000 visitors.

"The club has asked for Rp 496 billion (US$46.3 million) for the sponsorship. It's way too expensive. We are still negotiating it with the club management," Sapta said.

The Manchester United sponsorship is just one measure among the ministry's list of high-cost promotions being considered for this year.

Others include a plan to bring in a professional long-distance swimmer David Meca Medina to swim though the Lombok strait from Bali.

"This plan is also in negotiation. He asked for Rp 1.3 billion for sponsorship," Sapta added.

The ministry has already spent Rp 6 billion on sponsoring the Tour de Singkarak international bicycle tour in West Sumatra.

According to Sapta, the ministry only has a Rp 289 billion promotion budget allocated for this year to help attract 6.5 million tourist arrivals.

The Central Statistics Agency recorded 6.23 million foreign tourists arrivals last year, up by 13.24 percent from 5.51 million in 2007.

Sapta said the ministry would boost promotion of the country's untapped potential for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) to attract foreign travellers this year.

Thus far this year, Indonesia has become the host of several international events, including the World Islamic Economic Forum, the 42nd Annual Meeting of Governors of the Asian Development Bank, and the Waisak International celebration.

The country is currently hosting the World Ocean Conference in Manado, North Sulawesi, which has highlighted the importance of environmental protection for the oceans.

Sapta said the ministry had organized an event to promote MICE tourism in Bali last December, and a similar promotional event would be held in Yogyakarta in June.

Analysts have repeatedly said the MICE market is just one aspect of tourism promotion that Indonesia has yet to seriously tap into.

In fact, as one of Asia's main tour-destination countries, Indonesia has a variety of advantages to offer to the MICE tourism sector.

There are at least 10 main MICE destination cities in Indonesia, including Bali, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Batam, Medan, Bandung, Surabaya, Makassar, Padang and Semarang.

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