Indonesia to host Indian Ocean Tourism Fair

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will host the second annual tourism fair of the 24-member Indian Ocean Tourism Organization next month.

The fair will be held between April 24 and April 28 at the Jakarta Convention Center and have over 600 participants from 25 countries.

The fair will have seminars and media workshops and is expected to attract over 30,000 visitors.

Setia Mice is organizing the fair and will do so for the next five years.

The chairman of the fair's organizing committee, Nurdin Purnomo, said yesterday tourist spots from the Indian Ocean region and related tourism, trade and investment companies would present their destinations and services to international buyers and local consumers.

Setia Mice has sold 101 stalls (73 percent of those available) to 141 delegates from Mauritius, Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, India, the Middle East, Seychelles, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Thailand, and Cambodia, he said.

There will be 187 buyers from Indonesia, Mauritius, Reunion, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Middle East, Singapore, UK, Switzerland, Vietnam, India, Brunei, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, Kenya, the United States and Australia.

Nurdin said he expected three times as many transactions than at last year's fair.

Between 2,700 and 3,000 appointments are expected to be held during the fair.

"If one appointment generates US$10,000 we could have at least $27 million during the fair. That doesn't even include the value of some transactions which are higher than others," he said.

Indonesia's booming economy and the steadily rising consumer interest in travel, particularly to places around the Indian Ocean, makes Jakarta an ideal venue for the fair, he said.

The Indian Ocean Tourism Organization was set up in June 1995 to group Indian Ocean nations.

The organization held its first international fair here last year. (02)