AntaraJakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia is gearing up to work on attracting more tourists from Saudi Arabia at the Riyadh Travel Fair held at Al Faisaliah Hotel, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ministry of Tourism's Deputy Marketing Development II, Nia Niscaya, in Jakarta, Thursday, said that the Indonesian Government was looking to tap the potential of the tourism market from the Middle East.
"Indonesia's Wonderful Indonesia tourism brand continues to be promoted, including at the 2019 Riyadh Travel Fair," he said.
The exhibition is one of the largest tourism exhibitions in Saudi Arabia with visitors estimated at 28,000. The event will see the participation of around 300 exhibitors and 50 countries and will be held for three days from March 28 to 30, 2019. Niscaya said this effort would be a huge tourism market opportunity, especially for Saudi Arabia because visitor growth at the Riyadh Travel Fair continues to increase every year.
"In 2017, the exhibitors reached more than 250 with visitors totaling more than 30 thousand people; we will make good use of this, so that we can contribute to this year's target of 20 million foreign tourists," he said.
The figure, said Niscaya, increased from the previous Riyadh Travel Fair 2016, which featured 246 exhibitors with 25,724 visitors. In addition, the increase in numbers also jumped significantly by 30 percent compared to the Riyadh Travel Fair 2015.
"We realize that the potential of Riyadh is huge. The B-to-B meeting with the Riyadh tourism industry players will certainly be optimized. Information will also be provided as completely as possible. Tour packages have also been attractively prepared," he said.
In general, Saudi Arabian tourists are at a very good level of economic prosperity.
Referring to data from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, their spending capability is SAR68 billion.
Statistics of the Tourist Information and Research Center revealed that Saudi Arabia tourists spent SAR29 billion last year. That number comes from four million Saudi Arabian tourists.
"So far, the main destinations they favor are Bali and Jakarta. The other alternative destinations are Riau Islands, West Java, East Java, and North Sumatra," Niscaya said.
Indonesia itself will feature three components at the Riyadh Travel Fair, namely the distinctive taste of the archipelago's coffee, henna paintings, and the art of rampak gendang that are expected to wow visitors.
Not only that, various interesting content will also be available at the booth to attract visitors, starting from information about the area, testimonials of Indonesian drinks to demo corners with large LED screens. At the event, Indonesia will open a booth ad measuring 72 m2.
EDITED BY INE
Translator: Eliswan Azly
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
