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Ministry holds road show in Shanghai, Chengdu to lure more Chinese tourists
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A view of Shanghai Tower, China's highest building. The Tourism Ministry recently conducted a Sales Mission road show in two cities in China, namely Shanghai and Chengdu. (China Daily/File)
T
he Tourism Ministry conducted a sales mission road show from May 22 to 25 in two cities in China, namely Shanghai and Chengdu.
The ministry brought along 10 tourism players hailing from Jakarta, Bali, Yogyakarta and Surabaya to the event and partnered up with Garuda Indonesia representatives in Shanghai to meet with potential buyers.
Read also: Attracting Chinese tourists through Weibo and WeChat
Destinations promoted in the sales mission were none other than the 10 priority destinations, also known as the 10 New Bali, consisting of Lake Toba, Tanjung Kelayang, Tanjung Lesung, the Thousand Islands, Borobudur temple, Mount Bromo, Mandalika Lombok, Komodo Island, Wakatobi National Park and Morotai.
Up to 1.45 million Chinese tourists arrived in Indonesia in 2016. This year the ministry is targeting to attract 2.45 million visitors from Greater China (China, Taiwan and Hong Kong), 2 million of which from China alone.
As of March this year, the number of Chinese tourists coming to Indonesia reached 525,035.
One of the things that reportedly contributed to the high number was the partnership between the ministry and Chinese web services company Baidu, which has more than 300 million monthly users, as well as online travel information provider Qunar.
Read also: Action needed to lure 10 million Chinese tourists to Indonesia
“Almost every country in the world have eyes on Chinese tourists; their outbound travelers reach 120 million people per year and 70 percent of Chinese travelers do their traveling preparation online,” said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, adding that the average spending of Chinese tourists reaches US$1,057 per person per visit.
Arief has already asked several airlines, such as Sriwijaya Air, to add more direct flights from China to Indonesia. He also paid a visit to the Garuda Indonesia office at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to ask for more direct flights to destinations in China.
“I’m asking Garuda [Indonesia] to add more direct flights to China. Seven secondary cities in China already use charter flights; if we change it to scheduled flights I’m sure it will attract more tourists,” said Arief. (kes)
