‘Demand strong’ for Indonesia
I
ndonesia is confi dent demand for the destination will remain strong, despite October’s Lion Air tragedy that left 189 people dead.
Speaking at WTM London, ia iscaya, deputy minister for tourism marketing at the Indonesia Ministry of Tourism, said she had experienced “zero negative feedback” at the show from suppliers and partners in its European source markets over aviation safety concerns. “We don’t believe there will be a major impact from countries like the , mainland Europe and orth merica, as visitors from those destinations primarily fl y point-to-point and use a lot of Middle Eastern carriers, so we do not anticipate a drop in demand, she said.
The almost brand new Boeing 737 MAX went down soon after taking off from akarta on its way to Pangkal Pinang on October 29. Lion Air is Indonesia’s largest privately run airline and Niscaya said the Indonesian government would take steps to ensure it “never happens again”. Meanwhile, Niscaya said the island of ombok, struck in ugust by a .0 magnitude earthquake that killed 460 people, was now 70% open to visitors. Indonesia, she said, was aiming to reach 20 million global arrivals during 2019 an ambition spearheaded by a new campaign to push the country as a twin- centre destination combined with stays in Malaysia and Singapore. This will be facilitated via discounted ferry, hotel and airfares to tourists from nearby Asian countries. Turkish Airlines will also
introduce a new three-weekly service from Istanbul to enpasar Bali in 2019, which iscaya said would off er a fantastic opportunity” for European trade partners to promote Indonesia.
18 wtm insights winter 2018
Boracay clean-up hailed as success
T
he shock move to close the hilippine island of Boracay due to overtourism issues has been hailed the best possible outcome by one of the country’s tourism chiefs, after the hotspot reopened last month. Boracay began welcoming visitors back to its shores on October 26 – just six months after major sewage problems, caused by decades of unregulated building, forced its closure after its waters became polluted. Prior to ordering its closure, hilippines president odrigo uterte branded the destination “a cesspool”. Since then, the island has undergone a clean-up programme, with a taskforce created to manage sustainability. s part of the changes, a maximum of 19,000 tourists are allowed to visit each day. New road infrastructure, rules surrounding large parties and the construction of temporary structures are also in place.
Speaking at WTM London, Art Boncato, undersecretary of the hilippine epartment of Tourism, said
the country would look to become a trailblazer within sustainable tourism in Asia and use what it had done with Boracay to help neighbouring nations. hutting Boracay back in pril, in the lead-up to a bumper summer season was a shock for our tourism industry, but the president made the right call,” he said.
“It was a decision not based around business and making money, but on protecting the sustainability of our country and the welfare of tourists.” Boncato said the hilippines would also look to implement similar strategies around capacity limitation for its other island destinations such as alawan, Bohol and iargao. He added that the reopening of Boracay would give the hilippines a late push to reach . million global visitors by the end of 2018. The country enjoyed an .
year-on-year increase in global visitors from anuary to eptember this year with . million tourists visiting during the period.
Macao looks to luxury the next year. A
Morpheus, designed by the late Zaha adid, opened in une in the ity of reams entertainment resort off ering 0 rooms, suites and sky villas. pcoming designer openings set to follow Hadid’s property include Palazzo
series of designer-led hotel openings is set to put Macao in the spotlight over
ersace and the world’s fi rst arl Lagerfeld property, both due to open in the second half of 2019 in the Grand isboa alace resort development. Macao, which is a Special dministrative egion of hina, escaped major damage when Typhoon Mangkhut struck the region in eptember. The storm did however force Macao’s 42 casinos to close for
wtm.com
Boracay has
reopened following a major clean-up
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