Indonesian trade show disappoints
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Indonesian tourism players taking part in the country’s key travel fair are disappointed with the event’s failure to attract more foreign buyers, a Jakarta Post report said.
Only a small number of buyers are attending the 2008 Tourism Mart and Expo (TIME) being held in Makassar’s Celebes Convention Center. According to the report, the event organiser had claimed that in addition to 108 sellers from 16 provinces, 104 buyers from 21 countries were taking part in this year’s event which ends today.
Meity Robot, Chair of the 2008 TIME steering committee, was quoted saying that they were targeting a 10% increase in transactions from the 2006 figure of US$15 million.
The report quoted, Anita Verhoeven, Managing Director of Sunda Trails, as saying; “I am so disappointed to find only a small number of buyers coming to the event. The number is much smaller than in the 2006 TIME. I’m afraid we may fail to meet the target.”
In addition to the lack of buyers, Anita had also complained about the supporting facilities and venue that she had claimed differed from information given by the organizers. Gerit B. Polli, Sales & Marketing Manager of Absolutely Leisure from Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, had also expressed similar sentiments, the report said.
Sapta Nirwandar, the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Director General of Marketing, said he hoped the 2008 TIME would help Indonesia reach its target of 7 million foreign tourists this year. Four million have visited the country as of August.
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