Indonesian tourism promotion to United Arab Emirates

The sail-shaped icon Burj Al Arab, “the world’s only seven star hotel”, has truly put a spotlight on Dubai, especially in the tourism scene. (Shutterstock/File)

Prior to the Tourism Ministry’s Sales Mission events in Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Oct. 18-19, the ministry together with the Indonesian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, Visit Indonesia Tourism Officer (VITO) Middle East and other related parties held a meeting discussing the marketing strategy for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market.
“After landing in Dubai on Monday night, the group will be divided into two. I’m in charge of monitoring the preparation in Abu Dhabi, whilst VITO Middle East is in charge of Dubai,” said the Sales Mission team head, Rita Sofia.
“This year’s target of attracting foreign tourists is up by 25 percent from last year, from 12 million to 15 million,” she said.
The Indonesian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and VITO Middle East are the government’s representatives whose job is to learn about the potential market in the UAE that consists of 1.8 million local residents and 7.2 million expatriates.

Eighty percent of the people who live in the UAE region are expatriates with most of them are from India.
This is the third Sales Mission being held in UAE this year. The previous two events were for the fasting period and Arabian Travel Mart.
The latest Sales Mission will be joined by six travel companies that are ready to sell tourist destinations in Indonesia such as Lombok, Bandung, Bali, Jakarta and Komodo Island in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
“Jakarta is a popular destination since it’s a metropolitan city, Lombok is attractive as halal and marine tourisms, Bali is the world’s best destination and was once visited by the King Salman of Saudi Arabia, Bandung is a popular destination for shopping, whilst Komodo is currently happening in the Middle East,” said the ministry's deputy minister for overseas promotion, I Gde Pitana.
Komodo Island's popularity among the Middle Eastern people can be seen from the Komodo Island video on YouTube that has been viewed by 10,549,579 people with the majority were from the Middle East. (JakartaPost)