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Tourism Minister talks digital revolution at 22nd General Assembly UNWTO
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Tourism Minister Arief Yahya speaks to journalists after the launching ceremony of Hotel Indonesia Group (HIG) in Jakarta on Sept. 29. (JP/Anton Hermansyah)
T
ourism Minister Arief Yahya was one of the speakers in a panel discussion at the 22nd General Assembly UNWTO in Chengdu, China.
Held on Sept. 14, the discussion was moderated by Anita Mendiratta, the CEO and founder of Britny, the lead consultant of CNN International Tourism. Themed "New technologies to enhance tourism sector performance", the event was joined by around 1,500 delegates.
Speaking in front of the audience, Arief talked about the three types of digital revolutions: telecommunication, transportation and tourism.
“Digital technology revolution can’t be avoided, it is going to happen. It will change the world, creating new business model, so business people who don’t want to switch into digital platform will be left by the customers,” told Arief.
He explained that digital technology has changed the transportation industry as evidenced by the rise of online public transportation companies such as Grab and Uber that have managed to reduce the transportation fee.
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The same thing in the telecommunication industry, it’s getting cheaper with chat applications such as WhatsApp, Google, Baidu, Line that allow users to send messages for free.
The third revolution is in the tourism industry where online travel agents such as Traveloka, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Ctrip and others have disrupted conventional travel agents.
In his presentation, Arief also talked about how the growth of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia could reach 23 percent, making it in the top 20 worldwide list, while the average worldwide growth was at six percent.
“It's because we are becoming more digital, from the utilization of social media, big data, e-commerce and digital approach to customers,” told Arief. (kes)
