The Indonesia Tourism Industry Association (GIPI), with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (MoTCE), will launch its inaugural Wonderful Indonesia Tourism Fair (WITF) 2024 from October 2 to 4 at Swissôtel PIK Avenue in Pantai Indah Kapuk 2 (PIK 2), North Jakarta.

Aimed to be a private-sector led annual event in Jakarta, WITF is set to serve as a marketplace for the tourism industry around the world to meet with their counterparts from across Indonesia.

Hariyadi Sukamdani, chairman of GIPI, commented: “By uniting all of Indonesia’s tourism potential in one event, we believe that WITF 2024 will make a significant contribution to national economic growth.”

In this first edition, WITF was able to achieve its target of 150 sellers, while international buyers totalled more than 190, surpassing the target of 150.

The buyers come from 38 countries in the US, Europe, the Middle East, Asia as well as South-east Asia, with some sponsored by Garuda Indonesia, Emirates Airlines and Turkish Airlines.

“We have also invited some corporate buyers to visit the show as some sellers also provide business events products,” he added.

According to data from the committee, sellers come from the western tip to the eastern-most province of the country, Papua.

Budi Tirtawisata, chairman of the WITF 2024 committee, shared that thanks to the GIPI members, who hail from 36 various travel related associations, along with the wide range of destinations represented, the event “presents a wide variety of products ranging from hotel and travel companies to recreational and theme parks, transportation companies and travel technology companies”.

As for the venue choice, Budi explained: “At PIK 2, there are several hotels nearby and some others near the airport. Besides, PIK 2 is also an upcoming destination (near) Jakarta.”

In addition, event delegates will get a chance to tour the facilities at PIK 2 before the opening dinner on October 2.

In parallel with WITF 2024, the MoTCE will also organise the 2nd South-east Asia Tourism Business Events Forum (SEABEF) on October 2-3 at the same location, of which about 400 participants are expected to attend. Under the theme The Transformative Impact of Sustainability on The Business Events Industry, SEABEF 2024 will bring up pressing issues like sustainability, human development, technological information and destination leveraging.

International speakers at the forum will include Waikin Wong, regional director of Asia Pacific at ICCA and Mark Cochrane, regional Asia Pacific director of UFI.