Jakarta Intensifies Efforts to Attract Chinese Tourists
Jakarta has launched aggressive efforts to attract Chinese tourists through promotional campaigns and business matching events in Chinese cities such as Xiamen and Shanghai at the ITB China 2026 exhibition. However, industry players note Indonesia still lags behind its neighbours in building a cohesive national tourism promotion strategy.
At the exhibition, competitors like Malaysia and Thailand were seen as more unified, with integrated support from central and local governments, airlines, associations, and tourism industry players under a single national branding identity.
Indonesia, meanwhile, is viewed as not presenting a cohesive national force. Jakarta was identified as the most active region in promotion efforts at the event.
“DKI Jakarta has demonstrated remarkable commitment to promoting Indonesian tourism in the Chinese market. However, to compete with Malaysia and Thailand, Indonesia must present a unified national effort rather than operating in isolation,” said Sutrisno Iwantono, Chairman of the BPD PHRI DKI Jakarta, in Shanghai on Friday, 29 May 2026.
The situation should prompt the central government to consolidate Indonesia’s tourism promotion efforts on a larger, more coordinated scale. PHRI believes Indonesia’s participation in international travel fairs should involve more local governments, industry players, associations, and airlines under a single national branding strategy.
PHRI considers direct sales missions and business matching in strategic cities like Xiamen and Shanghai relevant to current Chinese tourist trends, which prioritise premium travel experiences, city tourism, shopping, culinary adventures, and business and MICE travel.
As a metropolitan gateway to Indonesia, Jakarta has strong assets to compete internationally, including international flight connectivity, world-class hotel and restaurant networks, modern shopping centres, urban cultural attractions, and MICE facilities.
Despite this, he commended the Jakarta Tourism and Creative Economy Agency (Disparekraf) for its active sales missions to China. He stressed the importance of these efforts given China’s status as one of the world’s largest outbound tourist markets and a strategic target for Jakarta’s tourism sector growth.
“Jakarta’s participation in ITB China 2026 demonstrates the strong commitment of the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government to expand international tourist markets, strengthen tourism business networks, and increase visitor numbers and MICE activities in Jakarta,” Sutrisno said.