T

he 10th Indonesia Travel and Holiday Fair (ITHF) kicked off at the Grand Indonesia Shopping Mall on Friday with organizers aiming to encourage the trend of growing overseas travel as more Indonesians enjoy stronger purchasing power.

Event organizer rajamice.com expects to net 44,000 visitors with the value of transactions during the three-day exhibition estimated to reach Rp 50 billion (US$5.2 million), a 10 percent increase from last year.

Approximately, 60 percent of the total transaction value is expected to come from overseas travel.

“Indonesia’s economic growth allows people to travel more for leisure, especially at the end of the year. We are here to provide tour packages and airline tickets with discounts of up to 50 percent for the year-end holiday season,” said CEO Panca Sarungu.

The expo features more than 100 companies, 20 travel agencies, eight airlines, 20 hotels and more than 488 destinations nation- and worldwide, offering visitors a wide range of options for thematic holiday destinations, accommodation and transportation.

Visitors, who had been waiting for an hour before the opening at 11 a.m., mostly flocked to the booth of domestic low-cost carriers, such as Citilink Indonesia and Mandala, seeking information about discount packages and schedules. Transactions took place at almost every booth, organizers said.

Rahmarianti, a 34-year-old woman who works in a private bank in South Jakarta, said she had managed to get a 10-day Turkey and Bosphorus cruise for only $988 per person.

“This is more than 50 percent below the normal price. You cannot get fares this low anywhere,” she told The Jakarta Post.

Other country destinations being promoted included Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

Marketing manager for the Sabah Tourism Board, Bobby Alex, said the number of Indonesian tourists was increasing every year by up to 90 percent.

“The number was around 10,000 last year but today, it is approaching 20,000 people,” Bobby told the Post.

Panca said Japan had seen some recovery after last year’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

Hideki Koshika, marketing director of travel agent Prime Follow Me Japan, said Japan was currently preparing tourist destinations, such as Hokkaido, for Southeast Asian travelers — especially Indonesians.

“The Hokkaido government is now starting to make halal food available, as Muslim travelers must be able to access appropriate food during their trips,” Hideki said.

Rudiana, vice chairman of the Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (Asita) and CEO of Wita Tours, said that limited domestic destination options were the main reason people chose to travel abroad.

“Bali is the word that pops up in most people’s minds when they think about traveling, while beautiful places like Wakatobi and Derawan are not on their [destination] list. The fact that we have not developed more places like Bali is the reason they go abroad,” Rudiana told the Post.

“People will think twice about visiting Raja Ampat when they can spend only around $500 to travel to Singapore.”

He said foreign countries, like neighboring Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, were always developing destinations, especially for Meeting, Incentives, Convention and Exhibition (MICE) purposes.

In addition, the emergence of low-cost carriers connecting cities in Indonesia with others across the globe was encouraging more people to travel overseas.

“The cost [of traveling to some foreign destinations] can often be cheaper than the cost of domestic destinations.”