On April 17, Indonesia held the first Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism promotion in the Chinese market for the first time after China's optimization of COVID-19 policies.
As the first station, Indonesia has chosen Guangzhou. According to Vinsensius Jemadu, a senior official of the Indonesian Tourism Ministry, said that this city has great potential for Indonesia’s tourism development.
Guangdong has always been a major province for outbound tourism. After the first outbound tour group departed on February 6, the industry has been witnessing a boom.
Jemadu added, “If you look at the flight distance, it's only 4 hours and 50 minutes to Jakarta. That's why we choose Guangzhou and Shenzhen, because of the connectivity, the direct flights.”
Recently, there are direct flights from Guangzhou to Jakarta by China Southern Airlines and Garuda Indonesia, and Shenzhen to Jakarta by China Southern Airlines, making it easy to connect to major cities in Indonesia such as Denpasar, Medan, Makassar, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta.
Ben Perkasa Drajat, Consul General of Indonesia in Guangzhou, said “With China being one of the world’s major economies, supported by its large size of population and proximity from Indonesia, China is a great potential market for Indonesia, especially in the tourism sector. In 2022, Indonesia had received about 144,000 visitors holding Chinese passports, and Indonesia expects more in 2023.”
Ben Perkasa Drajat (L) and Vinsensius Jemadu (R). (Photo: GDToday)
Jemadu introduced that this year, Indonesia is targeting 7.6 million international tourist visits, following last year's 5.2 million international tourists. “We hope that we can get more than 500,000 tourists this year from China,” he added.
Regarding entry policies to Indonesia, currently, there are 3 types of visas namely visa exemption for ASEAN countries, Visa on Arrival for 86 countries, and second home visa.
The promotion held in Guangzhou has brought together Indonesia’s MICE industry with 65 buyers from Guangzhou. It will also be held in Shenzhen on April 19, as well as in Beijing and Shanghai in the future.
