Chinese tourists stand in front of a souvenir stall in Bali
span class="caption">Chinese tourists stand in front of a souvenir stall in Bali. The government has announced a collaboration with Chinese Internet giant Baidu in a bid to attract more Chinese tourists to the archipelago. (thejakartapost.com/Raditya Margi)
The government announced a collaboration with Chinese Internet giant Baidu on Thursday in a bid to attract more Chinese tourists to the archipelago.
As the largest search engine in China, Baidu reportedly has a market share of more than 79 percent and total users of up to 600 million.
Aside from a search engine, the company also own a product called Baidu Travel, an online travel reference platform that features information, photos and videos of destinations.
Baidu Indonesia managing director Bao Jinlaei told a press conference on Thursday that the firm would put Indonesia's tourist destinations at the top of its search results for users looking for a place to travel to. Baidu will also help organize workshops to educate Indonesian travel agents, tourist destination managers and hospitality service providers on what information they should put on Baidu.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said around 1.1 million Chinese tourists visited the country last year, a markedly low number given that research company GfK's latest report said that China accounted for 109 million outbound tourists in 2015, with retail spend of US$229 billion.
Arief said the majority of Chinese tourists were aged under 45 years old, and 83 percent got most of their holiday information and references from the Internet. (kes)(+)
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