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Bali Tourism to launch joint promotion campaign with airlines Make My Trip :

In order to lure more Indian outbound tourists to the island of Bali, Bali Government Tourism Office, along with Indonesia Tourism will soon launch joint promotion campaign with the airline companies.  This joint promotion is being considered to offset the present connectivity issues between the Indian cities and the Indonesian island.  The tourism officials of the Bali Government Tourism Office expect Indonesian national carrier, Garuda to commence operations between Chennai and Bali from November, this year. This, will help improve the connectivity between the two countries in the coming months.  

Make My Trip : Addressing the media in Delhi as part of the Indonesia Tourism roadshow at Make My Trip, Risali Indrakesuma, Minister Council Public Affairs at the Embassy of Indonesia in India said that Indonesian destinations were yet to pick up as favourite travel destinations for Indian outbound because of "lack of awareness" and "poor connectivity."  "While the number of Indians travelling to South East Asian destinations was around two million last year, the Indonesian share was hardly one lakh. India is known in Indonesia more than Indonesia is known in India," he said.  He expressed the hope that the recently opened Indonesia Tourism representative office in India will help in increasing the awareness about Indonesian destinations, especially Bali in the Indian market.   

Masruroh, Deputy Director - MICE, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, informed that there was a whole lot of activities lined up in the coming months as part of Visit Indonesia 2008.  "For the Indian travellers, in Bali , we will organise a Vegetarian Food Festival and Dipawali celebrations. Apart from this, Guru Ravishankar, teacher, Art of Living, will visit Bali in November," she said.  She added that there has been provisions of 'Visa on Arrival' for the Indian travellers to Indonesia since 2002. Make My Trip

Make My Trip - Making a presentation on Bali Tourism, Ngurah Ambara, Representative, Bali Government Tourism Office said that Bali is a small island with "unique Geography, Demography and Social Life."  He added that the island has world class beaches, world class luxury hotels with conference facilities, facilities for adventure activities like white water rafting, diving, etc., world class spas,  nightlife, shopping centres etc.  "Although the number of Indian visitors to Bali has increased almost 71 per cent between 2006 and 2007 to touch 22,000, it is negligible considering the potential of the market,"  informed Ambara.   Make My Trip

Later speaking with TravelBiz Monitor, Sanjay Sondhi, Managing Director, Connect Worldwide and India Representative, Indonesia Tourism Office, said that his focus will be to "work as an intermediary" between the Indian travel industry and their Indonesian counterpart and "bring both the industries closer" to package the Indonesian travel destinations better in the Indian market. "We are also looking at joint promotions with airlines like Singapore Airlines,  Air Asia of Malaysia, Thai Airways of Thailand, and also private players like Jet," he added.  When asked about the reasons for Garuda choosing Chennai for Indian operations instead of Mumbai or Delhi, he said that one of the reasons might be proximity of Chennai with Indonesia, and "There's definitely a lot of movement from South Indian cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore to Indonesian destinations as well," Sondhi added. The Himalayan mountain range to the north and the Indus River (west) and Ganges River (east) form a physical barrier between International travel to India and the rest of Asia. The country can be divided into five regions: Western, Central, Northern (including Kashmir and Rajasthan), Eastern and Southern. MakeMyTrip.