Opening the Taiwan Tourism Services Office in Jakarta, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications joined hands with the local travel industry to develop Taiwan’s tourism business opportunities in 2024.
Jakarta, IO – To spread and expand the Taiwan tourism market globally in Indonesia, and to strengthen the promotion of Indonesian tourists to Taiwan, the Tourism Administration of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) opened a Taiwan Tourism Services Office in Jakarta located at GoWork Central Park on February 28, 2024. Deputy Director General of Tourism Administration of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC), Mr. Chou Ting Chang, led the inauguration of the Taiwan Tourism Services Office and invited the Taipei Economic and Trade Representative Office, China Airlines, Eva Airways, Singapore Airlines, and local travel agents to Indonesia to join in exploring Taiwan’s 2024 tourism business opportunities.
On the day of the inauguration also held Taiwan Day promotional activities were enlivened by Kadek Arini, a top Indonesian Instagram celebrity (selebgram), who shared personal experiences in traveling to Taiwan with the theme “The New Mysteries of Taiwan Tourism in 2024” and “New Destinations and Festivals for Tourism in Taiwan”. Apart from that, Taiwan Tourism will provide typical Taiwanese food and souvenirs for Indonesian people who visit the service center to show the tourist-friendly charm of Taiwanese tourism.
With a population of more than 278.8 million, Indonesia is the largest country in ASEAN in terms of area and economic scale and has demographic dividends and consumption power. Indonesia is one of the countries in Asia that has the greatest potential for tourism development. To expand the market for Indonesian tourists visiting Taiwan, the Taiwan Tourism Administration has prioritized the establishment of a Taiwan Tourism Services Office in Jakarta after the pandemic, in the hope of responding to the needs of Indonesian tourists and providing more direct information about Taiwan tourism.
For Indonesian travel agents, the establishment of the Jakarta Service Office will improve communication efficiency and strengthen the exchange and development of the tourism industry between the two places, regardless of whether it is about innovative thematic itineraries, product features, or Taiwan tourism information necessary for travel. Therefore, in addition to the existing customer base, this will also strengthen the overall development of the upper-middle class tourism and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) travel market, and will bring the exchange relationship between Taiwan and Indonesia’s tourism industry to a historic milestone new.
Minister Chen Sheng-peng from the Taipei Economic and Trade Representative Office in Indonesia said that since Taiwan promoted its new southward policy in 2016, there had been a close interaction between the Indonesian government and the private sector. Through deepening cooperation and comprehensive exchanges, bilateral relations between Taiwan and Indonesia continue to develop in all aspects. Annual reciprocal visits between Taiwan and Indonesia reached 229,960 before the pandemic, and reciprocal visits reached 201,950 in 2023.
Through the establishment of the Taiwan Tourism Services Office of the Taiwan Tourism Administration in Jakarta, Taiwan tourism information will be actively promoted to create a new peak in tourism exchange between Taiwan and Indonesia. In addition, because Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, with more than 200 million people, the overall consumer market is quite large. It is believed that in the future, the service office can directly provide more Muslim-friendly tourism information to Indonesian citizens to improve Taiwan’s ability to attract tourists to the Muslim tourism market.
Deputy Director General of the Tourism Administration of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC), Chou Ting Chang, said, “Indonesia is a key market actively developed by Taiwan, and the Taiwan Tourism Administration not only attaches importance to Chinese tourists but also actively prepares for the large Muslim market”.
The establishment of this Jakarta Service Office will allow for in-depth exchanges with local industry and will enable industry and the general public to experience Taiwanese hospitality and promote it through the provision of information services available within an hour, and most importantly, will provide them with a place to showcase the characteristics of tourism A diverse Taiwan, showing a more tourist-friendly and localized Taiwan. During the Taiwan Day event, Deputy Director Chou Ting Chang invited Kadek Arini to taste authentic Taiwanese pumpkin snacks, and even shared a list of delicious Taiwanese foods according to her taste. He also invited her to return to Taiwan to taste it again.
Kadek Arini, who has traveled to Taiwan, said that Taiwan is an extraordinary tourist destination: the mountain city Jiufen, the view of Sun Moon Lake, or the downtown area of Ximending. There are a variety of local dishes as well as beautiful views, and each season has its special characteristics so Taiwan can be enjoyed all year round.
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Zhou Shibi, director of the Taiwan Tourism Service in Jakarta, pointed out that the Tourism Bureau has started to actively organize the Indonesian market since the quarantine period. In 2023, it has formed a local project counseling team and is actively asking travel agents and major airlines to understand the market needs and preferences of the Indonesian people, “We will build an audio-visual database on Taiwan tourism to optimize publicity and use newsletters to disseminate thematic tourism information to meet requests regarding Taiwan tourism from the local travel industry as well as aviation media in Indonesia promptly”.
Following the establishment of this serviced office, online marketing, and offline promotional activities will be deployed to assist Indonesian operators in expanding their customer delivery performance. In the future, the service office will utilize its location in a well-known shopping mall to organize regular promotional activities with various Taiwan tourism themes, directly targeting the upper-middle-class consumer segment, and actively develop the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) market to help achieve the target of 12 million visitors from all over the world to Taiwan by 2024. (*)