"I will be leading an Indonesian delegation to the ITB in Berlin to promote our tourism," Mari said here Monday.
The Berlin tourism bourse is the largest business to business and media to media event of its kind in the world which Indonesia could not pass up as an opportunity to make its tourism better known to the world.
In 2011, ITB was participated in by 11,163 exhibitors and had drawn 169,295 visitors consisting of 110,791 trade buyers and 7,200 media organizations (1,800 from outside Germany).
"Participants from Indonesia were made up of 62 travel agencies and hotels, 9 regional governments, Garuda Indonesia and the Bali Village Consortium," she said.
At this year`s ITB , Indonesia was hoping to make transactions worth at least the same amount as in 2011 , namely Rp1.7 trillion, the minister said.
To Indonesia, this year`s ITB had a special significance as Indonesia would be an "official partner country" to the event in 2013.
By participating in this year`s ITB Indonesia could learn how to serve as next year`s official partner country successfully, she said.
"We plan to hold a dinner event, welcoming dinner, and at the some time introduce our culinary products. There will also be cultural performances and media promotions," she said.
By serving as ITB`s official partner country Indonesia would gain many advantages , including opportunities to promote its tourism at world level and encourage its tourism development.
For this year`s ITB, the event`s official partner county was Egypt and last year`s Poland. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
