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Annual shopping festival to lure more foreign tourists
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Slated to run until Oct. 27, the Wonderful Indonesia Culinary and Shopping Festival 2016 is being held simultaneously in 14 cities across 12 provinces. (Shutterstock/File)
Eyeing Chinese visitors as its main tourist market, Indonesia is set to make a culinary and shopping festival an annual event.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya told kompas.com that China had become the archipelago's main tourist market as it had beaten Australia in terms of the number of outbound visitors to Indonesia.
"Up to 52 percent of Chinese tourists who travel abroad [reportedly] enjoy shopping and 6 percent preferred cuisine," he said, adding that Chinese citizens also traveled to Geneva and Paris for similar reasons.
(Read also: Govt eyes more Chinese tourists, promotes tourism in Shanghai)
Meanwhile, the ministry's culinary and shopping tourism acceleration team head, Vita Datau Messakh, said foreign tourists visited Indonesia for its culture, nature and manmade attractions. "Sixty-five percent traveled for culture, 35 percent to enjoy nature and 5 percent for manmade attractions, such as sports events and exhibitions."
Slated to run until Oct. 27, the Wonderful Indonesia Culinary and Shopping Festival 2016 is being held simultaneously in 14 cities across 12 provinces — Jakarta, Malang, Palembang, Banten, Yogyakarta, Bali, Bandung, Solo, Makassar, Surabaya, Semarang, Pekanbaru, Medan and Balikpapan.
"There is more than one shopping mall participating in the festival in each host city," said Vita. (fmn/kes)
