“MATTA Fair has motivated me to improve BBTF; I would like for BBTF to rival MATTA Fair in the future,” said the ministry's deputy minister for overseas promotion I Gde Pitana during the opening of MATTA Fair.

Last year, with tickets priced at RM 4 (US$0.95), MATTA Fair attracted around 40,000 visitors every day and recorded a total transaction of Rp 42 billion (US$3.18 million).

“If we bring their success to BBTF and modify it with Balinese culture, it will be a huge market place and more foreign sellers and buyers who will do transactions in Indonesia,” added Pitana.

According to Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, in order to be as successful as MATTA Fair, they need to do benchmarking, “The things that MATTA Fair have done; analyze it and modify it to fit Indonesian characteristic,” told Arief.

He also advised to not be afraid of outside competitors, “If not through us, the [sellers] will sell through any market places from ITB Berlin, WTM London, FITUR Spain, MATTA Malaysia to NATTAS Singapore. It’d be better if they do the transaction in Bali or Indonesia. Let’s make Bali a tourism hub, a market place,” he added. 

This year’s BBTF was attended by 174 sellers from 19 provinces and 198 local and foreign buyers. (kes)

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