Bali & Beyond Travel Fair to be held in June
The Tourism Ministry has announced that its annual travel and tourism expo Bali & Beyond Travel Fair (BBTF) will be held on June 10-14.
This event is a central occasion where people in the tourism industry from all over the world meet and shop for tour and travel packages to Indonesia.
“We are hoping that the event will generate more than 1.5 million inbound tourists to Indonesia,” Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya said during a press conference in Jakarta last week.
To fulfill the target, the ministry is seeking to bring 325 buyers to the event; 50 of them would be platinum buyers, meaning they have each sent more than 10,000 inbound tourists to Indonesia. Tour and travel operators that have achieved this status will receive return tickets and accommodation facilities to attend the event, as well as an invitation to join the gala dinner on June 12, which President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is planning to attend.
Most of the foreign buyers will come from ASEAN countries; 72 ASEAN operators are expected to attend. European operators come in second place with 25 tour operations expected to attend.
The Tourism Ministry targets BBTF 2015 to generate Rp 13 trillion (US$1 billion) in transactions, which is double the number from last year.
“I don’t mind the event using the name ‘Bali’ instead of Indonesia; people are familiar with Bali already. The same goes with other international events like Milan Fashion Week,” said Arief regarding the event that will take place in Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center.
BBTF 2015 is part of the ministry's effort to raise the number of foreign tourist to 20 million inbound travelers by 2019 – last year Indonesia had 9 million foreign tourists.
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