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Indonesia’s newly appointed tourism minister wants to boost the sector via
the Internet. JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal (EPA Photo/Narong Sangnak) |
Jakarta.
Tourist arrivals grew throughout 2014 but still remain a mere shadow of those
for regional competitors Malaysia and Thailand. Now newly appointed Tourism
Minister Arief Yahya will use the experience gained from his background in
telecommunications to multiply the impact of the country’s tourism marketing
endeavors.
Arief is
upbeat on promoting digital marketing via the Internet to boost the country’s
tourism sector.
In his
outlook for 2015, the minister said the digital approach has the capacity to
reach out to more people and persuade them to visit the country.
“We will
still use the conventional way [of marketing] but it will be complemented with
the digital approach. Improvement of soft infrastructure is cheaper and easier
compared to improving hard infrastructure such as building new roads,” he told
GlobeAsia.
“We are
preparing a corporate strategy to make everybody happy. I will seek help from
[state telecommunication company] Telkom to provide Wi-Fi facilities at all top
[tourism destinations],” he said.
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Arief Yahya, Indonesia’s tourism
minister. (Photo courtesy of Telkom) |
According
to the former Telkom chief executive, who was President Joko Widodo’s choice
from several candidates to head the Tourism Ministry, Indonesia needs to
promote festivals and interesting events that can engage tourists directly in
cultural activities if it wants to boost tourist arrivals to 20 million — an
increase of 127 percent from present levels — by 2019.
Hermawan
Kartajaya, the founder and president of MarkPlus, a leading marketing
professional service firm, believes the target for tourist arrivals is
feasible, especially if tourists can get the true taste of Indonesia by being
involved directly in events and activities that at the moment are hard to find.
“Efforts to
improve infrastructure, roads, airports and others will be useless without
this,” Hermawan said.
Differentiation
is an essential part of tourism branding and each region should offer its own
unique culture through a festival, he said.
“Through
festivals, tourists would be able to get three elements: enjoyment, experience
and enrichment. Good festivals should woo tourists with all the elements they
offer,” Hermawan said, citing three satisfaction levels: “OK,” “aha” and “wow.”
Yanti
Sukamdani, the chairwoman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association
(PHRI), agreed that it was important to hold events in many cities.
“We can
promote sports events such as the Jakarta Marathon or cultural events such as
the Jember Festival. However, these sort of events need to be held in various
other regions as well,” Yanti said.
Hermawan
praised Arief’s move to take advantage of digital technology to promote the
country’s potential, saying that it is a small initiative that could bring a
quick win.
“Given his
background, Arief is well aware of the importance of e-tourism and digital
promotions,” Hermawan said.
Improving
the country’s infrastructure will take at least three years while digital
marketing can be done in a shorter period and with a wider reach, the marketing
guru said.
The iWOW
app
Elaborating
on his programs, Arif is launching an e-tourism promotion, which includes an
application called iWOW that provides
information on tourism spots across the archipelago, flights, hotel rooms, how
to get to places and promotions.
The
application also enables tourists to share their travel experiences with other
users and is expected to become an effective promotional tool. It can be
downloaded on smartphones and is offered in several languages: Indonesian,
English, Chinese and Japanese.
The ministry
is working with inTouch Innovate Indonesia and MarkPlus Center for Tourism
& Hospitality to release the application.
“The iWOW
concept is a low-cost high-impact marketing tool,” Hermawan boasts.
Yanti
agreed that digital marketing is an effective and low-cost marketing tool but
added that it could backfire if the government does not support it with
sufficient infrastructure and accessibility.
“The
government has to pay attention to flight frequencies, seat capacity,
connectivity, and accessibility because it could backfire if all those aren’t
ready. We can’t just promote our tourism potential and then leave tourists
disappointed due to lack of infrastructure,” she said.
Regulations
to go
To achieve
his target of 20 million tourist arrivals in the country by 2019, Arief will
revise regulations considered to have stalled growth and encourage investment
in the sector. His first step is to offer a visa-free facility to citizens from
five countries as of 2015: Australia, Japan, China, South Korea and Russia.
“We will
revise several regulations that have [become a] hindrance in order to improve
services in tourism, including one that’s related to tourists’ visas. If the
visa-free [regulation] is in place, we’ll be able to increase tourist arrivals
by up to 10 percent with just this one regulation,” Arief said.
“I will
also revise regulations to improve services. Tourists feel more comfortable
with good services and that will increase visits to Indonesia. This would
eventually also increase our foreign exchange,” the minister added.
With
improved services and infrastructure, Indonesia will improve its tourism
competitiveness ranking from number 70 in the world to enter the top 30. That
would mean the sector could contribute up to Rp 240 trillion ($19 billion) or 8
percent of gross domestic product by 2019, up from Rp 120 trillion and 4.2
percent currently.
Hermawan
agreed that the visa-free policy could serve as an effective measure to
increase tourist arrivals.
“It’s too
bad we’ve only been able to attract some 800,000 Chinese tourists to the
country,” he said, pointing to one area where numbers can grow dramatically.
Yanti
meanwhile said the government should start promoting other tourist destinations
as Indonesia is blessed with vast tourism potential. Eastern Indonesia in
particular offers much for marine tourism. The Tourism Ministry can support the
program by developing marine tourism, especially in regions such as dive havens
Derawan (East Kalimantan), Wakatobi (Southeast Sulawesi), Raja Ampat (West Papua)
and others, she said.
That means
Indonesia needs more ports for passengers, hotels and restaurants to
accommodate tourists, according to Arief.
“We should
have ports that can accommodate cruise ships. When we talk about building
ports, we should also talk about hotels and restaurants near the ports.”
Yanti adds
that the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) sector is
prospective. But, she stresses, that will require training.
“MICE
should be handled by professionals. It’s important to have people with the
skills and expertise to handle MICE,” she said.
Investment
Indonesia
needs to invest in hotels, restaurants, travel agencies and recreation centers
in order to attract more tourists to the country, Arief said.
Speaking to
GlobeAsia on the sidelines of the signing of a memorandum of understanding at
Indonesia Tourism Investment Day (ITID) in Jakarta recently, he said more opportunities
were needed to bring together investors, both domestic and foreign, and
regional governments to discuss opportunities.
The
minister added that during his first week in office he had already sent letters
to the ministers of transportation and public works with a list of 88 strategic
tourism areas in Indonesia that need the government’s support.
“Investment
in tourism is better than in manufacturing, including automotive,” Arief
argued, because it creates more jobs. Investment in the tourism sector should
not only be offered to investors but also to government institutions.
Based on
GlobeAsia research, Indonesia still needs 120,000 hotel rooms, 15,000
restaurants and 10,000 travel agents. It also needs 300 world-class theme
parks, 2,000 diving operators, 100 ports and various other supporting tourism
facilities. That provides plenty of opportunity for investors.
Investment
Coordinating Board (BKPM) chairman Franky Sibarani, who attended the MoU
signing, said he hoped the tourism sector could continue to grow and attract
global attention.
