Wahid hopes that the festival — slated to take place from Aug. 2 to 4 with the theme of “Visit Wonderful Indonesia:
Enjoy Our Tropical Paradise” — will be the biggest yet, as visitor numbers have risen since the first conception.

The second festival had around 91,600 attendees while the third one held at the bigger Krasnaya Presnya Park in Moscow had more than 135,000 attendees.

And this year, they hope to see at least 140,000 attendees, Wahid told a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

The Tourism Ministry said it was determined to diversify Russian tourist concentrations by promoting the Wonderful Indonesia brand as “Bali and Beyond” in the hope of increasing tourist numbers in other parts of Indonesia, while still maintaining the importance of Bali as a prime tourist destination.

Indonesia recorded 125,697 Russian tourists visiting the archipelago last year, with Wahid saying that 59 percent of these going to Bali and 8 percent visiting Java.

Nia Niscaya, the Tourism Ministry’s deputy for marketing development, said Russian tourists on average spent US$1595.99 per visit per person and that they had an above-average length of stay of two weeks.

Nia also revealed that Russian tourists “prefer high-end hotels and resorts” and represented an important market for Indonesia.

Nia said, however, there was only one direct flight from Russia to Indonesia, “and it is very important for tourism”.

According to Wahid, the upcoming festival in Moscow will be preceded by the Indonesia-Russia Business Forum on Aug. 1, which is expected to further help connect businesses and increase trade.

Business representatives from Aceh, Riau and West Papua have confirmed their attendance at the event, while a few from Central Java are still discussing whether or not to participate.

Trade with Russia fell to $2.58 million in 2018 compared with the $3.27 million in 2017.

But Wahid said that there was a “positive side as it showed that Indonesia doesn’t just sell commodities” as Indonesia produced one-time purchases of large goods for Russia such as “speedboats from Banyumas” or “heavy machinery from Surabaya”.

Wahid hopes that increasing the trade volume will lead to large industries getting involved.

Nia said she believed that promoting the Wonderful Indonesia brand during the festival would supplement the business and trade forum and lead to Russians being “more comfortable in doing business with Indonesia”.

— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post

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