Tourism market closes with US$8.7m in deals

JAKARTA (JP): At least US$8.7 million worth of transactions were closed during the fourth Tourism Indonesia Mart and Expo, which ended here yesterday.

The chairman of the event's organizing committee, Wuryastuti Sunario, said on Friday that foreign buyers, mostly consisting of tour operators, signed the deals after a number of meetings with Indonesian sellers during the four-day mart.

Part of the deals comprised buyers' commitments to buy tourism packages from local travel and other tourism-related companies, she said.

"Of all the deals made during the mart, marine tourism and adventure tourism were placed among the most popular," said Wuryastuti, also the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board's managing director.

Nature and sociocultural tourism, such as historical travel, followed, she said.

The mart and expo began on Wednesday but was officially opened by Deputy Governor Tubagus Rais on Thursday. The mart ended Friday, while the expo closed on Sunday.

Tourist destinations promoted during the mart were dominated by Bali and Java, especially Jakarta, followed by Sumatra, Batam and Bintan.

Wuryastuti said response to the eastern part of Indonesia, including Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Maluku and Irian Jaya had increased, especially from United States and European buyers.

Most of them were interested in marine travel, such as diving, board sailing and surfing, she said,

At least 185 companies, including airlines, tour operators and hotels from 23 provinces sold their products to 230 buyers from 35 countries during the mart.

A seller from Nustra Tour and Travel, Ingrid Sutrisno, said her company had 16 appointments with foreign buyers, mostly from the United States and Europe, during the mart.

Ingrid said about half of the appointments seemed to show promising results in commitment deals. But she did not give the approximate value made on the deals.

She said optimism was shown during most of the mart, but nervous tension rose slightly after yesterday's news of the tragic Garuda Airbus crash in North Sumatra, which killed the crew and all passengers, and which was presumably caused by the haze.

Two foreign buyers from a Dutch travel company said they were losing many potential tourists because of the haze, caused by forest fires, covering parts of Indonesia.

Some sellers complained that the organizer's inefficiency prevented them from achieving optimal results during the mart.

"Both buyers and sellers did not receive the names of the participants until close to the last minute," said one seller, who requested anonymity.

There were many instances of overlapping during the buyers and sellers meetings; some companies turned out to have set three appointments with the same seller, or some buyers were not aware that they had set appointments with sellers, she said.

This resulted in many canceled appointments, she said. (das)