Tourist industry gears up for 'Happy Day' freebie bonanza
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's tourist industry is gearing up for a bold approach to bring in new business by offering one free day of services and accommodation for international tourists.
"Each of us knows our task on the D-Day," the head of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (Asita), Meity Robot, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
All major international hotel chains are currently publicizing the free day, called "Happy Day", to their customers across the world. National air carrier Garuda Indonesia is also promoting the day at its foreign office branches, Meity said.
Happy Day is part of the tourist industry's latest campaign, "Let's Go Indonesia", to lure back visitors to the country, which has been hit by series of political, economic and natural blows.
The free day will be set this month, its date to be kept secret until the day before.
"The promotion is an image campaign. It is not meant to increase the number of visitors here," Meity said.
The program is also supported by the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (IHRA), the Indonesian Tourist Promotion Board, the Association of Indonesian Tourist Attractions (Putri), the Indonesian National Air Carriers Association and Garuda Indonesia.
Each tourist arriving in the country on Happy Day will receive free room and board, one meal, one tour and entrance to recreational parks on the set day.
Tourists arriving on Indonesian airlines will be entitled to a complimentary one-way or return ticket to any domestic destination.
Visitors already in the country at the time of the free day will be entitled to all of the above except for free hotel accommodation.
Visitors will also be entitled to a 50 percent discount on any future domestic flight valid for one year from the set day if they travel on an Indonesian airline during the set day.
All prepaid accommodations and tours will be refundable with a voucher for the respective services which can be used at the time of their visit or at a later date.
The offers are good for the country's main tourist destinations, including Jakarta, Bandung in West Java, Semarang and Solo in Central Java, Bali, Lombok in East Nusa Tenggara, Batam and Bintan in Riau, Medan in North Sumatra, Menado in North Sulawesi and Yogyakarta.
After Happy Day, the campaign's second phase, "Magic Month", will be launched during which there will be cheap package offers from hotels, restaurants and airlines.
"For example, Bali Promo and Singapore Airlines may offer a program called $1 a city," Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association vice president Feisol H. Hashim told a weekly forum on tourism yesterday.
Visitors flying Singapore Air will be able to pay US$1 on the first night of their stay at a participating hotel, he said.
The campaign will be concluded with the annual Indonesia Travel Mart to be held here in September.
At yesterday's forum, members of several of the above associations, however, complained about a lack of support from the government in promoting tourism.
The country's tourist sector, badly hit since last year, suffered an even deeper slump during and following the May riots, which prompted many foreign countries to issue travel warnings on Indonesia for their citizens.
Meity said the number of foreign visitors in Jakarta alone had dropped to 100,000 in January to June this year from 500,000 in the same period last year.
The number of visitors to Indonesia in the first half of this year only totaled about 1.4 million, she added. (das)