BATAM, Riau Islands, 12 April 2029: Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya says he will appoint a Visit Indonesia Tourism representative in Thailand soon.
His comments were picked up by Antara.com during the minister’s visit to 2019 VITO annual meeting held in Batam earlier this week.
The Ankara news agency quoted the minister saying: “I have decided that we should have a VITO in Thailand. We should realize this plan soon, as Thailand has many tourists.”
He was opening the 2019 VITO annual meeting that brought together representatives who look after Indonesia’s tourism interests in 16 countries worldwide.
Indonesia looks at Thailand’s rising fortunes in tourism in terms of arrivals (38.2 million in 2018 and heading for 40 million this year).
Thailand’s estimated financial earnings are impressive providing close to 20% in direct contributions to GDP. Tourism revenue figures are rough estimates based on exit surveys at airports.
“Thailand’s foreign exchange earned from tourism is the highest in the ASEAN,” Indonesia’s tourism minister stated obviously keen to emulate Thailand’s story on tourism’s financial gains.
Like most of the representation deals that make up the VITO network worldwide, Indonesia will hire an individual rather than a company to market Indonesia’s tourism in Thailand.
The minister told Antara News the person would be either an Indonesian or Thai citizen, who has lived in the country for decades and understands the market.
The move comes at a time when more airline routes are opening up between Thailand and Indonesia and the Thai outbound travel market is expanding with experts claiming this year it will generate 10 million outbound trips.
Indonesia is not a top travel choice for Thais who prefer to visit Japan, Korea Hong Kong, China and Singapore.
(Source: Ankara News)
