October tourism expo to use larger space

JAKARTA (JP): Covering 5,850 square meters, the total exhibition space of the third Tourism Indonesia Mart and Expo (TIME) to be held in October will be double the size of the exhibition's floor space last year.

Chairperson of the exhibition committee, Wuryastuti Sunario, told reporters yesterday that 144 booths for 139 domestic vendors and 110 booths for overseas buyers were registered as of yesterday to participate in the travel mart to be held at the Jakarta Convention Center from Oct. 1 through Oct. 7.

"We expect 250 booths for domestic sellers and 250 for buyers from 26 nations in the tourism mart," she said.

She said this year's exhibition is being organized by the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board in cooperation with PT Expose Pragapromo, while the tourism mart is being organized by the board jointly with PT Pacto Convex.

There will also be conferences and seminars, with the Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, Joop Ave, the Ambassador of the European Commission to Jakarta, Klaus Peter Schmallenbach, and Tan Chin Nam of the Singapore Tourism Promotion Board as speakers.

Last year's TIME, with about 190 foreign buyers from 32 countries, recorded transactions of Rp 70.7 billion (US$30.11 million), far better than the Rp 40.6 billion recorded in 1994.

This year's TIME will cost Rp 1.8 billion, of which Rp 1.1 billion will be financed by the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board. The remaining cost is being met by sponsors.

Tuti, who is also the managing director of the board, said that 30 percent of the participating sellers from 16 provinces will enjoy discounts of up to 75 percent in leasing the floor space.

The leasing fee for a standard 12-square-meter booth at the mart is $1,400 and $3,000 at the exhibition. Buyers will be charged a $250 registration fee which will give them 24 appointments with sellers.

She said that overseas buyers would enjoy a discount of 75 percent off the fares of a number of air carriers, including the state-owned Garuda Indonesia, Thai International, SilkAir, Ansett Australia and KLM. A group of four-star and five-star hotels have offered 50 percent discounts to the sellers.

Tuti said that this year's TIME is expected to attract buyers from new markets, such as Bahrain, Egypt, the Slovak Republic, Hungary and Uzbekistan, which will participate in the event for the first time.

Indonesia is developing its tourism industry to become a major foreign exchange earner by the end of the Seventh Five Year Development Plan in 2004. The country earned $5.2 billion last year from 4.3 million foreign tourists, compared to $4.7 billion from 4.01 million visitors in 1994. (icn)