T

he Astindo International Travel Fair 2012 drew huge crowds when it kicked off on Friday as people hoped to take advantage of discounts for overseas trips offered by travel agencies taking part in the country’s largest annual international travel fair.

As soon as the second travel fair opened to the public at 10 a.m., visitors flocked to every exhibitor’s booth in the JCC’s Cendrawasih Room to seek more information about tourism packages that matched their schedules. Transactions occurred at almost every booth.

Rosana, a 30-year-old woman who works at a private company in Central Jakarta, said that she was satisfied with the package she bought for her June holiday.

“I spent only US$140 for a four-day Bangkok and Pattaya package, excluding the hotel. It is very cheap because last year I spent more than $300 to go to Bangkok, excluding the hotel,” she told The Jakarta Post.

She was even happier because she will fly with national air carrier Garuda Indonesia.

“How can I not be happy when I will spend my holiday with my friends in Thailand with a great package, cheaper prices and fly with a premium class airline,” she said.

Indonesia Air Ticketing Association (Astindo) chairperson Elly Hutabarat said that all exhibitors involved in the three-day fair offered discounts ranging from 20 to 50 percent for every tour package and airline tickets.

“We offer great tourism packages to Asia, Europe, America and Australia, from medium to premier class, with lower prices. This will surely attract the people who visit the fair,” Elly said on the sidelines of the fair’s opening at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) on Friday.

This year 77 exhibitors — travel agents, airlines, tourism boards and cruise liners — took part in the fair; a 28 percent increase from 60 exhibitors last year due to strong travel demand from Indonesians, she said.

In addition to more affordable prices offered during the fair, one of the country’s top lenders, Bank Central Asia (BCA) has also extended great packages to their customers.

Senior BCA credit card general manager Santoso said that their customers could pay travel packages by installments for 6 months with 0 percent interest.

“We also have what we call a ‘hot offer’ to our customers by collaborating with the airlines,” he said.

One of the hot offers was the Jakarta — Hong Kong and Jakarta — Melbourne round trip tickets on Garuda Indonesia that cost only $337 and $496, respectively, almost 50 percent cheaper than the regular prices.

“Our target in sales at the Astindo fair this year is Rp 18 billion from Rp 13 billion last year,” he added.

In a separate interview, Rudiana, the CEO of Wita Tour, who is also the chairman of the Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agents (Asita) Jakarta branch, said that demand for traveling among Indonesians will remain strong this year despite the fuel-price hike.

“People will always save some of their money for traveling, no matter what happens in the economy. They may cut their spending, but they will still travel,” he told the Post.

Due to the strong demand, he said that the number of exhibitors participating in the annual travel fair is projected to double next year.

He said that in 2013, the Astindo International Travel Fair will use 4,000 square meters of the JCC area, twice as large as the area they are using this year.

“We also plan to conduct the fair twice a year in the near future; the first fair will always be in Jakarta and the second in Surabaya, East Java,” he added.

Astindo International Travel Fair 2012 aims to book a total of Rp 50 billion ($5.45 million) in transactions, a 19 percent increase on last year’s Rp 42 billion.

In addition, the number of visitors to Astindo’s second travel fair is projected to reach 50,000, a 28 percent increase on the 39,000 visitors last year. (nfo)