T

he government of New Zealand has officially opened a tourism office in Jakarta in a bid to promote several attractions in the country as well as capture potential holidaymakers from Southeast Asia'€™s biggest economy.

Aristo Kristandyo, the marketing communication manager with the Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) Jakarta office, said his team would start promoting New Zealand as a holiday destination to the Indonesian market.

'€œWe'€™re working on short- and medium-term programs as we will have a lot of [promotional] events in Indonesia in the near future,'€ Aristo told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

According to Aristo, the representative office has completed a detailed analysis of Indonesia'€™s market potential.

Such analysis will be crucial for the team to determine what actions can increase the number of visitors, particularly from Indonesia, to New Zealand, which is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

The analysis includes examining general consumer trends, assessing the market'€™s size and people'€™s
behaviors.

Then, the team will delve into the defined target market that consists of people who see New Zealand as their holiday destination but have not yet chosen the country as their next destination for leisure.

Indonesia'€™s economic growth, coupled with the emergence of low cost airlines, has made demand for outbound travel grow at 9.7 percent a year.

Visits by Indonesians to New Zealand were growing at a similar rate, with 12,500 Indonesians visiting the country as of May 2013, he continued.

In addition, as with any market, aviation connections were critical to the success of a sustainable visitor flow.

Aristo said the Jakarta office had collaborated with TNZ'€™s Singapore office. Meanwhile, New Zealand'€™s holiday destinations have been promoted through indirect services with Singapore Airlines and
Malaysia Airlines via Jakarta.

The obvious goal was to secure direct air links to Jakarta, and both Auckland International Airport and TNZ have recently been in positive discussions with national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.

'€œNo date has been committed to at this stage. In the meantime, we welcome Air New Zealand'€™s increase to four flights per week for the 2014 seasonal service,'€ he went on.

Moreover, with a high usage of mobile devices and social media, the recently launched market edition of newzealand.com in Indonesian will play a key role in providing destination information.

This includes insight on getting around, which is key in improving the market'€™s perceptions of the ease of seeing and doing things in New Zealand.

According to Aristo, his team has prepared a short term program consisting of activities to be conducted between October and December this year.

The medium plan was going to cover plans in the first half of 2014, he added.

'€œThe recruitment process to complete the team with a trade and business executive is well underway. The full team will be in place from early November, and it will lead TNZ to secure a strong, long term position for the New Zealand tourism industry,'€ he said.

'€” JP/Nurfika Osman