印度尼西亚旅游开发局今年将进一步采取措施吸引更多的中国游客，以充分开发中国这个作为世界第二大经济体的旅游市场。

RI to strengthen promotion to attract more Chinese tourists

The Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board (BPPI) will focus its promotional efforts on attracting Chinese tourists this year in a bid to tap into the growing tourist market from the world’s second largest economy.

BPPI executive director Fathul Bahri said the board would this year focus on promotions in Kunming of Yunnan province and Chongqing, the largest municipality in southwest China.

The plan will be a continuation of the board’s efforts to promote Indonesian tourism in Xiamen, Fujian province, and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in 2014.

“We have done a lot of promotion there. We are more focused in China [compared to other places] and we cooperate with the industry association,” Fathul told the press on Monday.

The Chinese cities were picked based on their geographical position in the southern part of China, meaning they are closer to Indonesia, he added.

The board also picked the cities because they have established flight connections with Indonesia, such as Xiamen which already has a direct flight to Jakarta, he added.

Last year, the promotion was in the form of sales missions and roadshows, where the board shared general information about Indonesia. The board also organized special events for the niche market. The promotion this year would be similar, Fathul said.

“For the niche market, we have promoted Indonesian spas and golf, among other things. We can showcase our lower charges for golfing,” he said.

He said that the board also promoted the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) industry.

Chinese tourists topped the number of foreign tourist visits in July 2015. Of a total 814,200 visitors recorded in July, 15.3 percent were Chinese tourists, according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

The number was higher than Australian tourists with 11.54 percent of the total visits, as well as Singapore and Malaysia with 11.52 percent and 9.67 percent, respectively.

In addition, total Chinese tourists entering Indonesia in 2014 stood at 1.05 million tourists, up 22.35 percent from 858,140 in 2013.

Indonesia granted Chinese tourists a visa free policy earlier this year in an effort to boost tourism. The government hopes to see between 2 million to 4 million Chinese tourists entering Indonesia this year, helped by the new policy.

However, Fathul said that Indonesia had tapped less than 1 percent of the total outbound tourist departures from the mainland, which exceeded 100 million last year as announced previously by the China National Tourism Administration.

The number of outbound Chinese tourists is expected to increase more than 16 percent this year, according to a Xinhua news agency report. The report also stated that Chinese tourists spent a total of US$164.8 billion while overseas in 2014, four times higher than in 2008.

Fathul said that tourism promotion in China would be part of the BPPI’s efforts to attract foreign tourists this year. Other cities including Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Seoul in South Korea, Tokyo in Japan and Sydney in Australia will also be targeted by the promotion board.

The activities would soon commence after the budget for the BPPI was disbursed by the Tourism Ministry, he said. This year, the government allocated Rp 1.2 trillion ($82.83 million) for promotions.

However, China has seen its economy slow this year, after posting double-digit growth in the mid-2000s through exports and investment.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects China’s economy to grow by 6.8 percent, its weakest since 1990.

The recent rout in Chinese stock markets and the deva luation of the yuan has also affected Indonesia, with stock exchange benchmark the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) falling more than 16 percent to date. - See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/22/ri-strengthen-promotion-attract-more-chinese-tourists.html#sthash.tCwJZpqe.dpuf