Jetstar to help drive tourism industry in Indonesia

Jetstar has signed a major new deal aimed at enhancing Indonesia’s tourism industry.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the low-cost airline group and Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism will see Jetstar’s Australian and Asian airlines both expand their operations in the country, whilst also undertaking joint marketing and promotional activities across Asia Pacific.

The deal forms part of the Indonesian government’s ambitious target of attracting 15 million international visitors this year and 20 million by 2019. To achieve this, Indonesian Tourism Ministry is planning to boost its air capacity by four million seats in 2017 and an additional 10.5m seats by 2019. Australia, Singapore and the broader Asia Pacific are key source markets for the country, in terms of both business and leisure travel.

The MoU was signed by Dean Salter and Bara Pasupathi, the respective CEOs of Jetstar and Jetstar Asia, and Indonesian Tourism Ministry secretary, Ukus Kuswara, in the presence of Tourism Minister Arief Yahya.

“With up to 80% of international tourists arriving into Indonesia by air, the role that airlines like the Jetstar Group plays will be critical in enabling the Indonesian government achieve its 2017 and 2019’s tourism targets,” the minister said.

Jetstar Asia’s Pasupathi added that the MoU will “open up more opportunities to promote international tourists and business travel to popular Bali and other up-and-coming destinations”.

“With a stable of more than 25 codeshare and interline full-service carriers in place, our model of bringing tourists beyond Singapore will only serve to further enhance tourism to Indonesia,” he added.

Combined, the two airlines carried a total of 1.4 million to and from Indonesia last year, operating more than 120 weekly flights a week to six destinations: Denpasar, Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Pekanbaru and Palembang. Details of the airlines’ expanded operations have not yet been released.