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Jakarta to set up information center to attract visitors

Tourists planning to spend their vacation in Jakarta can now book their accommodations and access the capital city’s calendar of events through the recently updated Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency official website: jakarta-tourism

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Tue, September 24, 2019

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Jakarta to set up information center to attract visitors

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span>Tourists planning to spend their vacation in Jakarta can now book their accommodations and access the capital city’s calendar of events through the recently updated Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency official website: jakarta-tourism.go.id.

The new feature, launched on Tuesday, is expected to provide detailed information on the capital city’s tourism, collated on the agency’s website as a one-stop tourism information center.

“We are collaborating with online booking platform Traveloka to enable visitors to directly book hotels, resorts and villas from our website. This innovation is only a pilot project as other features will be added to the website in the future, so tourists could access all the information they need for their holiday from jakarta-tourism.go.id,” said the agency’s head of information and development, Alberto Ali.

Ali added that the agency was currently developing a program called Easy Go Jakarta, which in the long run, would allow tourists to also book flights, buy entrance tickets to various tourist attractions and get information about public transportation routes, cultural events, culinary destinations and souvenir shops in addition to booking accommodations.

The website, he explained, will provide necessary information about vacationing in the capital city, namely airfares, public transportation fares, entrance fees to tourist attractions, food prices in selected restaurants as well as souvenir prices in major gift shops.

“It will help potential tourist plan the entire budget for their holiday ahead,” Ali said.

In its implementation, the agency will collaborate with other companies to develop the tourism information system.

“The project’s implementation won’t be possible without cooperation with other established companies in tourism. For example, even though our agency has complete data on all hotels in Jakarta, their addresses and phone numbers, we don’t have the data on their room prices and facilities, so we could not possibly make an online booking service without their assistance.”

The agency’s head of destination and marketing, Hari Wibowo, said the Easy Go Jakarta project would be ready within a month or two.

At the moment, the website only has an online hotel booking feature and calendar of events, but the agency will soon add more features and provide detailed information on Jakarta’s tourism.

“We expect this project could double the number of our website visitors, which is currently recorded at 10,000 visitors a month,” Hari said, adding that the hotel booking feature would help the Jakarta Administration better monitor the income tax of hotels.

The number of visitors to the agency’s website is considerably low as tourists still seek information from other sources, including social media, to plan their trip to the capital city.

Ellyvia Trisnawati, an office worker from Ngawi, East Java, said she did not visit the agency’s website to get the necessary information for her trip to Jakarta some time ago. She instead preferred to gain information from social media platforms.

“I seek information on interesting places and good restaurants in Jakarta through various social media platforms. Whenever I wanted to take public transportation, I just used a free application called Trafi to check bus and train schedules and routes in the capital city,” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Muhammad Baiquni, a tourism expert at Gadjah Mada University’s (UGM) Center of Tourism Studies, said that even though Easy Go Jakarta could help boost tourism in the capital city, he suggested that the Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency also include local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the project.

“The agency should also provide space on its website for local SMEs, not just for established companies. Such an arrangement could help boost the local economy along with tourism,” he said.

Baiquni also suggested that besides improving its information services, the city administration should also make Jakarta a more tourist-friendly city by adding more signs in English at tourist spots, revitalizing sidewalks and improving public transportation services.

Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency head Edy Junaedi said that as of July, more than 20 million domestic and international tourists have visited the capital city this year.

“Our target is to receive around 34 million domestic tourists and 2.8 million international tourists in 2019,” he said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

A recent study conducted by the World Tourism and Travel Council and Jones Lang LaSalle projected that Jakarta will see an influx of tourist arrivals in 2027. (nal)

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