The first post-election travel fair in Indonesia, held in Tangerang city, on the outskirt of Jakarta, has provided the tourism industry with good indicators of consumer travel sentiment.
Organisers, the Indonesian Travel Agents Association (Astindo), said industry players remain optimistic despite fears travel would slow post-election.
“The election is over and now it’s time for people to hunt for tour packages,” said Pauline Suharno, Astindo’s chairman, speaking at the fair’s opening ceremony.
This year marked the 16th travel fair organised by Astindo since it was first held in 2011.
Suharno said new challenges lie ahead for her organisation due to competition from other platforms, including OTAs, “racing to have travel fairs”.
“Everyone is dumping the price,” a situation, Suharno said, that would lead to “downgrading of the value of travel agents”.
In response, Astindo aims to launch a travel fair with a different concept, called Astindo World Expo, in Surabaya by the end of May
It also plans to hold a B2B roadshows to secondary cities in Medan and Makassar in early June.
“We hope our friends who live in the secondary cities will upgrade their capabilities and capacities, including product knowledge, to create and sell more tourism packages,” said Suharno.
Director of tourism marketing at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Dwi Marhen Yono, said the government is projecting domestic tourist movement in 2024 to reach 1.25 to 1.5 billion.
“If we could, at least, reach our target at one billion tourist movements, it will be the remedy to counteract global economic recession,” the tourism director added.