JAKARTA. The Tourism Ministry together with the Indonesian Embassy in Manila, Philippines, is going to hold Wonderful Indonesia Festival 2017 that aims to promote the country’s trade, tourism and investment in 2017.

The event is also held to celebrate the 72nd anniversary of Indonesian Independence day.

Wonderful Indonesia Festival 2017 will be held for two days from July 27 to 28 at Gioretta Activity Center-Palm Drive Makati Philippines.

“This annual promotional event is one of our efforts to attract the Filipino market while bringing the Wonderful Indonesia tourism brand to market prominent tourist destinations in Indonesia. The Filipino market has been growing economically in the past five years in the era of ASEAN Economic Community,” said I Gde Pitana, the ministry's deputy for Overseas Promotion.

For this year, Indonesia aims to attract 15 million foreign tourists, of which 185,000 are from the Philippines.

Thirty-seven entrepreneurs who work in trade, medium-sized businesses (UKM) and tourism are slated to take part in the event as it will also host business meetings between buyers and sellers and interactive discussions about the development of tourism in Indonesia.

For the year of 2017, the ministry has set a target for the tourism sector to contribute 13 percent in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and generating Rp 200 trillion (US$15 billion) of foreign exchange.

It also aims to create 12 million job opportunities, attract 15 million foreign tourists and 265 million domestic tourists and place Indonesia in the 40th spot of global competitiveness index. (kes)

Editor: Dessy Rosalina