Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Tourism is promoting new Indonesian tourism programs at the Travel Exchange of the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2025 which will take place from January 15 to 17 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
The forum is considered the best opportunity to introduces new programs which aim to develop tourism in Indonesia, according to the ministry’s deputy for marketing Ni Made Ayu Marthini.
”The new programs include the clean tourism movement, digitalization of tourism or tourism 5.0, and development of special interest tourism attractions," she said in a statement on Sunday.
In addition to implementing superior tourism programs such as the tourism village, Indonesia is promoting new programs to support quality and sustainable tourism.
Marthini stated that in 2024, Indonesia received 4,303,773 tourist arrivals from Southeast Asian countries.
"This ASEAN market is still very potential to be optimized," she noted.
In an effort to attract more ASEAN tourists to Indonesia, the Ministry of Tourism is collaborating with the Indonesian Consulate General (KJRI) in Johor Bahru, the Johor State Government and the Riau Islands Provincial Government to improve Johor's connectivity with parts of Indonesia as well as to establish cross-regional tourism promotion cooperation.
The state of Johor in Malaysia is, by many aspects, very close to Indonesia’s Riau Islands.
"Therefore, we need to present tourism programs that can be beneficial for the people of Johor and the Riau Islands," she noted.
Indonesian Consul General in Johor Bahru Sigit Suryantoro Widiyanto said that the cross-border tourism promotion program between Indonesia and Malaysia includes a plan to implement special border treatment (SBT) for Johor residents who want to go to the Riau Islands, and vice versa.
"Regarding this SBT plan, the Riau Islands Province Regional Tourism Promotion Agency and Tourism Johor are currently in the technical implementation discussion stage with tourism business actors in their respective regions," he said.
Meanwhile, the Wonderful Indonesia Pavilion has recorded business-to-business transactions worth Rp41.1 billion (around US$2.5 million) on the second day of the ATF 2025. The number is expected to continue to increase until the end of the event.
