Indonesia's rapidly emerging outbound tourism market ripe for the picking

Indonesia is forecast to be one of the fastest-growing outbound tourism markets by 2020, according to Auckland Airport analysis, and visiting tourism and trade experts from Indonesia believe New Zealand needs to get ready for these visitors.

Trevor Lee of TravConsult, specialists in international customer service and tourism development, told TRENZ delegates at the Auckland Airport International Speaker Series that Indonesia’s outbound traveller is sophisticated and experienced, and increasing in number by a rapidly growing wealthy segment.

“The wealthy population in Indonesia grew by 20 per cent last year and these consumers are already travelling overseas. And very importantly, the majority speak English well. The middle class in Indonesia is also increasing in population, and with increasing incomes, comes spending more on comfort, lifestyle and quality of living,” he says.

“A large number of Indonesians travel domestically – 115 million people, 48 per cent of Indonesia’s total population. Within five years, many more of these will be travelling overseas as outbound interest is growing rapidly. So how will New Zealand welcome and look after them and what will they want to do and see in New Zealand? My advice would be for New Zealand to get much savvier about emerging markets in ASEAN such as Indonesia and to better understand what makes them tick and their many cultural differences. A one-size-fits-all approach won’t work.”

Also speaking at TRENZ as part of the Auckland Airport’s speaker series is David Taylor, New Zealand’s ambassador to Indonesia and to ASEAN, who echoed Mr Lee’s comments about the growing potential value of Indonesia.

“Building closer ties and relationships with Indonesia is vital for New Zealand to attract these burgeoning travellers. The recent memorandum of understanding signed between Auckland Airport and Garuda Indonesia to commit to re-opening air-links between Indonesia and New Zealand, and the commencement of seasonal Bali services by Air New Zealand are steps towards closer airline connectivity with that region. A direct service between Indonesia and New Zealand would be a game-changer for the relationship, offering real benefits to both countries through greater business, tourism and education travel,” says Mr Taylor.

According to Auckland Airport’s Ambition 2020 initiative, announced last week, Indonesia and other ASEAN markets such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are vitally important as they are growing quickly and could easily develop into $100 million plus visitor spend markets.

“Asia will likely provide the largest growth in traveller arrivals with that region increasing by about 460,000 visitors to a potential 900,000 arrivals into New Zealand by 2020. Emerging markets within Asia are particularly interesting with the likes of Indonesia having the potential to at least triple in arrivals to New Zealand by 2020,” says Glenn Wedlock, Auckland Airport General Manager Aeronautical Commercial.

The airport believes by 2020 Asia will also provide the largest growth potential in the amount travellers spend when they are here, and could contribute $2.9 billion of the projected $8.5 billion in inbound tourism value by 2020.

“Auckland Airport has a number of initiatives to better understand the Indonesian traveller, what motivates them and what sorts of things they are looking for in a holiday destination.  Some of the things we are doing include; developing increased air-services such as the Garuda Airlines MOU and Air New Zealand Bali services, bringing Indonesia experts to New Zealand for TRENZ and developing an customised Indonesian version of our website,” adds Mr Wedlock.

Auckland Airport is this week also hosting a celebrity ambassador from Indonesia, television personality Farah Quinn, on a tour of Auckland, Northland and Queenstown. As part of a wider premium programme to promote luxury New Zealand, Farah will use her huge popularity and influence in their home market to promote her tour of New Zealand to more than one million fans on Facebook and 237,000 followers on Twitter.