Garuda, Restaurants Establish Cooperation To Promote Indonesian Culinary Diplomacy

London (Antara Bali) - Garuda Indonesia airways has established cooperation with Indonesian restaurants in England to help promote the government's culinary diplomacy program.

The Indonesian embassy in London facilitated the promotion cooperation, CP DethiS, Gani, said here Saturday.

Besides, the promotion is also expected to improve the brand awareness of Garuda Indonesia in Europe, and particularly in the United Kingdom (UK).

Garuda will publish articles on those restaurants in its inflight magazine, Colour, and advertisements on its Boarding Pass Through Value (BPTV).

Meanwhile, the Indonesian restaurants will provide Garuda brochures to their customers and give 10 to 20 percent discounts to those with Garuda Indonesia boarding passes.

Six out of the 15 Indonesian restaurants in the UK are engaged in the cooperation with Garuda.

The six are Bali Bali and Nusa Dua located in Shaftesbury Ave, The Bali Lounge in King's Road, Reading and Warung Padang in Prince of Wales P H, and Scott Lidgett Cres in London, in addition to Waroeng Windsor Upper Union St. Aldershot in Hampshire, and Krakatoa York in York.

The integrated promotion cooperation between Garuda and those restaurants is a follow up of President Joko Widodo's visit to London last April, Indonesian Ambassador to Great Britain and Ireland Dr. Rizal Sukma said.  

The embassy in London will always fully support the Indonesian culinary diplomacy program aimed at introducing Indonesia's unique and peculiar foods and beverages, and at attracting tourists to Indonesia, he said.

The British community is open to foreign culture and it is a good opportunity to market Indonesian cuisine to the European country.

Some 280 thousand British tourists visited Indonesia in 2015, constituting the largest number of tourists from a European nation.

General Manager of Garuda Indonesia for the UK and Ireland Jubi Prasetyo said the cooperation is parts of the airways' promotion program and a facility to its passengers to enjoy a discount from those restaurants.

Since March 31, 2016, Garuda Indonesia has flown Jakarta-London with a brief stopover in Singapore. (WDY)