Merapi Tour is promoted to Vietnamese Tourists

INDUSTRY.co.id - Hanoi - Yogyakarta Tourism Department is trying to hook tourists from Vietnam by offering tour packages that combine visits to the attractions of Mount Merapi and the coast with cultural tourism.

"We need a unique tourist combination such as" Merapi Lava Tour ", beach tourism including tourist villages to attract foreign tourists, including Vietnamese origin, travel to Yogyakarta," said Head of Tourism Yogyakarta Aris Riyanta to Antara on the sidelines of Vietnam International Travel Mart (VITM) 2018 at the Hanoi International Center for Exhibition.

At VITM 2018 which runs from March 29 to April 1, Yogyakarta includes five tourism industry players engaged in travel services bureaus.

"They sell, convince VITM visitors directly or through its network in Vietnam, that the tourist objects in Yogyakarta is very interesting and must be visited because it has its own characteristics," said Aris.

Yogyakarta is intensively developing adventure tourism destination "Merapi Lava Tour" in Kaliurang, right at the foot of Mount Merapi. Merapi Lava Tour invites tourists ride Jeep cars along the former lava flow eruption of Mount Merapi with three short and long routes.

In addition, Yogyakarta has dozens of beautiful white sand beaches in Gunung Kidul area, such as Indrayanti Beach or Pulang Sawal Beach, Drini Beach, and Jogan Beach; as well as developing new tourist destinations to add tourist options.

Aris argues that one of the obstacles of local government in developing accessibility tourism destination.

"Accessibility is important, because for travelers, distance and more efficient time becomes a major factor in making a journey," he said.

In the near future New Yogyakarta International Airport will be built in Kulonprogo and targeted to operate in 2019.

"If it has been operating Kulonprogo Airport has a wide impact for the development of Yogyakarta tourism industry With the efficiency of time then the length of stay of foreign tourists can be longer so that more tourist destinations that can be explored," he said.

Aris targets this year foreign tourists who visit the region can be up to 430 thousand people, an increase compared to the year 2017 which is about 397 thousand people, in 2016 about 350 thousand people.

Currently, the number of foreign tourists visiting Yogyakarta is mostly from the Netherlands (12 percent) followed by Malaysia (10.5 percent), Japan (10 percent), and from the United States, Singapore, Italy, Germany, France, Korea and China less than 10 percent. Special Vietnam tourists, in 2017 is estimated to reach 3,000 people visiting Yogyakarta and is expected to reach about 4,000 to 5,000 people by 2018. (Ant)