T

he holiday season is coming next month and Kemas Hasyim, 55, wants to spend it traveling with his family, with India as their destination this time.

Kemas joined a large pack of people hunting for discounted air tickets on the opening day of the annual travel fair at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, looking for a travel package to the Indian Subcontinent.

'€œWe are planning to go for a vacation during the school holiday, since one of my children is still studying at junior high school. We want to travel abroad, but we want a different experience this time, so I guess, why not India? I hope to find a nice offer here,'€ Kemas said.

Another visitor, Wida Anissa, 29, a private employee, said that she was planning to go for a vacation to Japan with her group of friends this year, following the Japanese government'€™s decision to waive visa requirements for Indonesian e-passport holders traveling to Japan for less than 15 days.

Despite the recent weakening of the rupiah against the US dollar, a large number of travel aficionados came to the fair organized by the Association of Air Ticketing Companies in Indonesia (Astindo) to take advantage of discounts, mostly on outbound travel.

Astindo chairperson Elly Hutabarat said that the travel fair aimed to attract 85,000 visitors this year with total transactions of up to Rp 100 billion (US$7.68 million), an increase of 10 percent from last year.

In 2014, the fair attracted around 75,000 visitors and had total sales of Rp 85 billion.

Elly said that although the rupiah had been weakening over the past few months, the association did not see a decrease in demand for travel.

On Friday, the rupiah traded at 13,064 per dollar, relatively unchanged compared to earlier this week, when it stood at 13,067 per dollar, according to the Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate
(JISDOR).

Last week, the currency depreciated to 13,209 per dollar, its lowest level since the 1998 Asian financial crisis.

Elly added that the depreciation of the euro against the US dollar was also among the factors prompting some people to switch their travel destinations to Europe.

'€œPeople find traveling to Europe less expensive these days because of the depreciation of the euro against the dollar. Therefore, we hope to see an increase in demand for long-haul trips to Europe during this exhibition,'€ Elly said during the press conference.

The euro traded at $1.08, down slightly from a level of $1.08 in the North American trade late Thursday.

More than 150 exhibitors are participating in the Astindo Fair 2015, including 51 travel agents, 13 airlines and 17 international and local tourism boards. Among the local tourism boards that are participating are ones from Tanjung Lesung, East Kalimantan and Lombok. Meanwhile, several international tourism boards exhibited at the travel fair from China, Dubai, Japan, Macau, New Zealand and Turkey.

In cooperation with private lender Bank Central Asia (BCA), the fair offered a cash-back deal of Rp 300,000 for every purchase using the bank'€™s credit card that reached Rp 4 million. BCA customers can enjoy a zero percent interest rate on every transaction made at the exhibition.

Elly said that the association would also hold the fair in Surabaya, East Java, between April 23 and 26, following growing travel demands from the city.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Minister'€™s special staff Agus Edy Susilo said that such exhibitions would support the government'€™s growth target of 15 percent for air transportation passengers this year.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showed that the number of airline passengers traveling overseas in 2014 rose by 5.41 percent from 13 million in 2013 to 13.7 million.

'€œWe hope to see a recovery in the country'€™s economic growth this year that will lead to an improvement of the public'€™s income. Therefore, we are optimistic that we can reach 15 percent growth of passengers this year,'€ Agus told reporters.