ATTA urges focus on Indonesians

The Thai government should pay more attention to Asean tourists, especially Indonesians, to meet its goal of 2 trillion baht in tourism revenue by 2015, says Susdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents. He said the Indonesian market has a huge population of 237 million, of whom 20-25% are middle- and high-income earners with strong purchasing power and travel ambitions. Last year, Indonesian tourist arrivals in Thailand numbered 200,000. They have almost reached that level for the first six months of this year, standing at 197,911. "Indonesian arrivals remain small. If the government seriously promotes this market, then annual arrivals can reach 600,000 visitors in three years," he said. Indonesia's economy is growing by 6.5% to 7.5% annually. Its outbound tourists last year numbered 12 million, with 1.2 million going to Singapore and 2 million to Malaysia. "When the Asean Economic Community (AEC) starts in 2015, Thailand should not ignore Indonesia. If we have more interesting man-made tourism sites, we can attract up to 600,000 Indonesia tourists," said Mr Susdivachr. Bagus Sudibya, vice-chairman of the Association of the Indonesian Tours & Travel Agencies, said the European crisis has shifted the tourism spotlight to Asia. "It's time for Asia and Asean. We have to seize this opportunity. Each country in Asean has to collaborate to increase our bargaining power," he said. Mr Sudibya said the Indonesian government allocates US$62 million annually to promote tourism. The country also plans to add Thailand as an important tourist destination next year. The Indonesian government sees the importance of tourism because it generated $8 billion in revenue last year, he said. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has established divisions for Asean, South Asia and Asia-Pacific markets in preparation for the AEC. TAT governor Suraphon Svetasreni said the government assigned all state agencies to set up an Asean department to supervise and observe Asean markets. More aggressive promotions will be planned for the Indonesian, Philippine and Vietnamese markets. The TAT's Asean division will propose improvements in business standards, staff education in foreign languages, options to price wars among operators, partnerships in Asean and strict law enforcement. From thailandtourismupdate