Jakarta (ANTARA) - Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno explored potential cooperation with Chinese companies Trip.com Group and Juneyao Airlines and said Indonesia views China as a valuable tourism market. During his visit to Shanghai, China, the minister highlighted that China is among the largest contributors of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia, with the number of visits reaching around two million annually prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement received from his office here on Friday, Uno noted that his visit was aimed at pursuing the government's target of attracting 1.0–1.5 million tourists from China this year.

Uno expressed the hope that by collaborating with the corporations, Indonesia will be able to rope in more tourists from China and place itself as a favorite destination for tourists around the world.

"My visits to Trip.com and Juneyao Airlines are expected to result in the broadening of the scope of cooperation," he said.

The minister then observed that tourists from China tend to prefer special trips that include certain activities, such as hiking, camping, diving, golf, and culinary tourism.

In 2019, he pointed out, Chinese tourists spent US$255 billion on outbound tourism activities during overseas trips.

In the post-pandemic era, Chinese tourists were declared as the highest-spending travelers globally, with the value of their spending clocked at US$196.6 billion in total in 2023.

Uno underlined that the figure surpassed the travel spend of US$150 billion of US tourists, US$112 billion of German tourists, US$110 billion of British tourists, and US$49 billion of French tourists.

"Over 56 percent of tourists from China are easily influenced by tourism-related content circulating on social media platforms," he added.

He then said he hopes that his engagement with Juneyao Airlines would boost the airline's flight frequency to Indonesia and drive it to open new routes to other cities in the country.

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