COVER STORY
SHARING STRENGTHS Meanwhile , Indonesia and Malaysia have come together to leverage each other ’ s expertise in developing Muslimfriendly products to draw more Muslim travellers to both destinations .
The way forward for this collaboration was discussed at a bilateral meeting between the two tourism ministries during the recent 43 rd ASEAN National Tourism Organisations ( NTOs ) Meeting .
I Gde Pitana , a Deputy Minister ( international tourism marketing development ) of Indonesia ’ s Ministry of Tourism , highlighted a number of reasons to back such collaboration :
“ First , although Indonesia is made up of predominantly Muslims , we still get enquiries from Malaysian Muslim travellers on whether we have halal products . The cooperation is expected to raise confidence in Indonesia as a friendly destination among these travellers .”
Secondly , Pitana pointed out that Malaysia has managed to attract millions of Middle Eastern visitors while Indonesia is only getting a few hundred thousands . Middle-Eastern travellers have a month-long summer holiday and they spend an average of 10 days in Malaysia .
“ We would like to get them to spend more time in Southeast Asia
Lombok naturally has Muslim-friendly products although not all are certified halal , so we just need to improve and highlight what we have .
by extending their stay in Indonesia ,” he quipped .
Tan Sri Ong Hong Peng , Secretary- General of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia , said the collaboration seeks to “ find a common ground and share experience ” to “ strengthen each other ”.
“ We will start off with having common Muslim-friendly packages that will meet the expectations of Muslim tourists ,” he suggested .
Both ministries have identified the Middle Eastern market as a target , but will also court other sources .
Hamzah Rahmat , president of the Malaysia Association of Tour & Travel Agents ( MATTA ), welcomes the initiative . He noted that “ the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism has already taken steps ( to involve the trade ) by inviting inbound operators to provide product updates on Batam ” so as to create combined packages incorporating Malaysia and Indonesia products .
He added that the Indonesian ministry will work with MATTA to conduct more familiarisation trips to Jogjakarta , Surabaya and Padang this year .
Elly Hutabarat , PanTravel Indonesia president , concorded : “ Developing a joint product between Indonesia and Malaysia is in line with the spirit of developing ASEAN as a single destination . We can start from ( bilateral cooperation ) and grow from there .”
This article is adapted from halal tourism-related news content found in the Show Daily published in conjunction with the ASEAN Tourism Forum ( ATF ) 2016 that was held in Manila from 20-22 January 2016 .
ISSUE 2 : 2016 | ASEAN COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS
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