Beijing (Antara Bali) - Indonesia has plans to attract more Chinese tourists, but in order to do so it needs to have a good strategy, the country's Minister of Tourism Mari Elka Pangestu said here on Tuesday.
"Besides that Indonesia must also move quickly and more professionally to exploit the potential (offered by Chinese tourists)," she said after a meeting with the chairman of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), Shao Qiwei.
During the meeting, the two officials agreed to renew a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on tourism signed by the two countries in 2000.
The renewal was needed in view of the fast pace of development in the tourism market. According to the U.N. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO 2013) China has been ranked first as a tourism market supplier, with Chinese tourists spending up to US$102 million in 2012 or 40 percent higher than the US$73 million spent in 2011.
The number of Chinese, who travelled abroad, has also surged quickly from only 10 million in 2000 to 83 million in 2012.
However, the number of Chinese tourists flocking to Indonesia was still small and pegged at only 726,088 in 2012, which was lower than the number of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia, which was recorded at 1.56 million and Thailand at 2.7 million. (*/DWA)
