Indonesia’s ambitious target of more than doubling tourist arrivals to 20 million by 2019 is been supported by a huge increase in its tourism budget.
It now has a budget of 1.3 trillion rupiah (about $95 million) for tourism promotion this year, which is more than quadruple the 300 billion rupiah spent last year, tourism ministry spokesman Vincent Jemadu said.
The record budget will be spent on ads in the international media, including overseas TV, and a focus will be on attracting a greater share of the Chinese market.
“Indonesia currently draws in only 1% of Chinese tourists globally. We want to boost that,” Jemandu told the Wall St Journal.
To support the marketing push, Ogilvy Public Relations has been appointed to head up the ‘Wonderful Indonesia’ branding campaign, which is now ranked 47th out of 144 countries by the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index.
“We are extremely proud of this and are determined to continue the momentum,” said tourism minister Arief Yahya.