Indonesia's ascent

Aage Hansen, president director Deutsche Messe Venue Operations, Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE), says Indonesia is thinking big when it comes to MICE. The overall tourism industry has emerged as one of the key drivers of the country’s growth. Its contribution towards the economic and employment has significantly increased over the past numbers of years. In Asia Pacific especially Indonesia, the tourism sector has proven to give a significant contribution to the country’s economic growth. The MICE industry (meeting, incentive, convention, and exhibition) is one of the biggest growth platforms of the Tourism sector. The Indonesian Ministry of Tourism is accelerating and working hard to expand the tourism sector to reach the target of 20 million tourist by 2019. The Indonesian government has set a numbers of strategic initiatives for the improvement and promotion of MICE destination including continuous supports in the development of new MICE venues. The Ministry of tourism is aiming on bringing in more international events into Indonesia. Just recently, Indonesia has been chosen as the host for the 39 th PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Travel Mart event. This event was held at Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) and being attended by more than 1000 delegates from 60 countries. We believe that this type of event will created economic spin off for the region, both in short and long term.