Indonesian Tourism Breaks Records at FITUR 2024 Through Strategic Collaboration

Madrid, Spain – In order to welcome Indonesia’s participation in the 2024 Feria Internacional de Turismo (FITUR), the Indonesian Embassy in Madrid held a warm dinner. The event was attended by more than 50 participants, including tour operators, tourism businesses, as well as personnel from the Indonesian Embassy in Madrid (25/1).

In his remarks, the Indonesian Ambassador to Madrid, Dr. Muhammad Najib, highlighted the recovery of global tourism, where Indonesia has received 10,409,411 foreign tourist visits in the period January to November 2023. Of that number, Spanish tourists contributed 98,386 people. This figure broke the highest record in history, where the previous highest number of visits by Spanish tourists was 85,560 people, namely in 2018.

Official of the European Directorate I of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Asri Okina Gunanti, delivered a presentation on Indonesia’s tourism potential, including economic contribution, statistics on tourist visits, national policies, infrastructure, and super priority tourist destinations.  The event was continued with a typical Indonesian dinner which ended the event with a bang. Dishes such as crispy fried chicken, anchovies with  peanut sauce, and gado-gado, received positive responses from the participants.

FITUR is the most important tourism exhibition for the Ibero-American market. Together with the Mobile World Congress (MWC) which is held every end of February in Barcelona, ​​FITUR which is held every January in Madrid is the largest international annual exhibition in Spain and one of the largest in Europe. This year, FITUR will be held again at IFEMA Madrid, 24-28 January 2024.

The Indonesian Embassy in Madrid has established strategic collaborations with 10 tour operators and tourism businesses, including Asia Bespoke Tours, Melia Bali, and Spanesia Adventure Group. This participation, supported by the Public Private Partnership, involves support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade, Antangin, Grab, and Melia Hotels International.

Indonesia’s participation in FITUR 2024 aims to take advantage of the recovering interest of the Spanish people in traveling abroad and support the recovery of Indonesia’s tourism sector after the COVID-19 pandemic. The momentum of Indonesia’s election as a member of the UNWTO Executive Council also provides additional strength to attract world attention to Indonesian tourism destinations.