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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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