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Envoy sets sights on ‘Game of Thrones’ fandom
Recent arrival: Olivia Leslie, the Irish Ambassador to Indonesia, speaks to an audience of students at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java last year
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ecent arrival: Olivia Leslie, the Irish Ambassador to Indonesia, speaks to an audience of students at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java last year.(Courtesy of the Irish Embassy in Jakarta)
Fantasy geeks and bookworms are welcome to make a pilgrimage to the seat of Westeros, as the new Irish envoy to Indonesia, hoping to attract the attention of pop culture enthusiasts, is making efforts to boost cultural exchanges between the two nations.
Leaning on the popularity of Game of Thrones, a critically acclaimed fantasy drama series based on the works of George RR Martin, Ireland’s recently appointed Ambassador to Indonesia Olivia Leslie led the call for Indonesian travelers to visit the Irish countryside and the nation’s shopping destinations.
“We really want to have more Indonesian tourists in Ireland. Nearly 30,000 Irish people come to Indonesia every year and 3,000 Indonesians come to Ireland,” Leslie said on the sidelines of a Saint Patrick’s Day reception in Jakarta. The Irish holiday is celebrated annually on March 17.
Leslie, who submitted her credentials to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo last November, said the gap in visitor numbers between Indonesia and Ireland was mostly understandable considering that Indonesia was “a long way” from the western European country.
She stressed, however, that Ireland was no less attractive to Indonesians than other countries — its beautiful scenery and shopping havens make a good case for it.
For Indonesia’s growing pop culture audience, she said, the idea of traveling to the Irish locations where Game of Thrones was filmed would be particularly attractive.
While Belfast was considered the heart and soul of Game of Thrones lore in Northern Ireland, tourist packages based on the hit series were widely on offer and covered the entire isle, including locations in the Republic of Ireland, Leslie explained.
“Northern Ireland and Ireland are marketed together. They are beautiful locations that people can go and see. But there are other things such as Irish music [that] is really popular in Indonesia,” she said, noting that some Indonesian musicians were able to play the Uilleann bagpipe.
Other Irish exports that have found fame in Indonesia, she continued, included pop groups such as Boyzone and Westlife — popular during the 1990s.
“We are trying to encourage [...] music connections as well. We want the people to understand Ireland as a destination but also as an experience [...] [with] music and culture and food,” she said.
The ambassador said she also planned to develop the links between Indonesian and Irish educational institutions, as Ireland “will be the only English-speaking country in the European Union” when the United Kingdom completes Brexit negotiations.
