JAKARTA - Hong Kong authorities offer 500,000 free plane tickets for foreign tourists (tourists).
The offer was launched through the 'Hello Hong Kong' tourism promotion campaign in an effort to revive the tourism sector and bring back tourists.
Responding to this, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) Sandiaga Uno said, Hong Kong was not the target of foreign tourist visits for Indonesia.
Because, according to Sandiaga, of the total 60 million Hongkong tourist visits, the number of visits to Indonesia did not reach one percent last year.
"So, they (Hong Kong) prepared two billion US dollars to be distributed as free tickets, but to their Hong Kong-based airline," Sandiaga said at The Weekly Brief with Sandi Uno in Jakarta, Monday, February 6.
"This is a very bold step. We don't see it as a rival, we actually see this as an opportunity for us to be able to offer direct flight packages from Hong Kong to destinations in Indonesia," he continued.
According to Sandiaga, Indonesia does not need to worry about this. This is because the attraction of tourism between Hong Kong and Indonesia is very different.
"We want as much as possible to emphasize that there is a Proud Travel program in Indonesia," he said.
Therefore, Sandiaga emphasized that his party should boost the movement of domestic tourists with the Proud Traveling in Indonesia program, so that the number of foreign tourist visits is more to Indonesia, compared to the number of Indonesian tourist visits abroad.
"We must take this with full collaborative and innovative steps, so that we not only attract foreign tourists, but can encourage archipelago tourism to be proud to travel in Indonesia," he said.
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