Indonesia gets ambitious with a US$1 million bid fund

Aside from Bali, Jakarta (pictured) is the only other MICE-ready Indonesian city

Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism will be creating a US$1 million bid fund next year, as part of the government’s efforts to boost the country’s business events sector.

The funds will be used mainly for the bidding of international events.

Aside from Bali, Jakarta (pictured) is the only other MICE-ready Indonesian city

When interviewed on the sidelines of the Ministry of Tourism’s National Coordinating Workshop, Arief Yahya, Indonesia’s minister of tourism, said: “Business events are a (high-yielding) sector, and we encourage the industry to bid for events, while the government provides the funding.”

Aside from the creation of the fund, the government is looking into developing and promoting MICE-ready destinations like Batam and Bintan. Currently, only Bali and Jakarta are considered ready.

Arief continued: “We will not be able to win Singapore if we compete heads on. What we can do is pair Singapore with Batam and Bintam (for side events, and pre- and post-programmes. This is our intention.”

The above actions are important as it will help to boost both the number of arrivals and the country’s revenue, as the government is accelerating foreign exchange earnings to lower the current account deficit.

Also speaking at the same workshop was Bambang Brodjonegoro, minister of national development planning of Indonesia. He pointed out that Indonesia’s tourism sector needed to go beyond achieving tourists arrivals, and should focus on raising yields by attracting business events.

“We should not be content at seeing long queues at the immigration counters anymore, but instead how to make travellers stay longer and spend more. This is more important,” Bambang remarked.

Bambang citied the upcoming 2018 IMF-World Bank Annual Meeting in Bali (October 12-14, 2018) as an example. His ministry estimates that the meeting will yield about 5.9 trillion rupiah (US$3.3 million), and that the estimated spending from participants during their stay will hit 1.1 trillion rupiah. The event will also create jobs.

Bambang believes that as major events contribute to higher tourist spend, the tourism sector can help to strengthen the value of the rupiah.

“This will be a quick way to improve Indonesia’s economy,” he concluded.

Hosea Andreas Runkat, chairman of the MICE Acceleration Team under the Ministry of Tourism, said the IMF-World Bank Meeting would herald the revival of business events in Indonesia and prove that the destination is capable of hosting events with more than 15,000 participants.

Hosea said: “We are now formulating a MICE development strategy that will become a reference for our working plan for 2019-2020. Our goal is to bid for seven (international) events.”

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