It is estimated that by 2020, Indonesia will be one of the rapid-growing markets of outbound tourists. Indonesian tourism and trade experts conceive that New Zealand need to prepare for greater amount of Indonesian visitors.
In Indonesia last year, the amount of wealthy consumers grew by 20%. The population of Indonesia's middle class is also rising thanks to an increase in incomes which results in more spending on lifestyle, comfort and quality of living.
The amount of domestic travelers in Indonesia is 115 million, a 48% of Indonesia's total population. In 5 years, many of them will be traveling overseas due to the rapid growth of interest in outbound traveling.
David Taylor, New Zealand’s ambassador to Indonesia, commented about the increasing value of Indonesia's potential. According to him it is vital for New Zealand to build closer relationships and ties with Indonesia, in order to attract these growing amounts of travelers. A direct connection between New Zealand and Indonesia would offer multiple benefits to the two countries through greater tourism, business and education travel. The memorandum of understanding between Garuda Indonesia and Auckland Airport undertaking the re-opening of air links in the two countries is a step toward airline connectivity.
The Ambition 2020 initiative of Auckland airport, illustrates that Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and other ASEAN markets are essential because they are rapidly growing and are likely to grow into a visitor spend market of more than $100million.
Asia is likely to contribute to the largest growth of visitors with that region rising by about 460,000 visitors to a likely 900,000 travelers going to New Zealand by 2020. Asian emerging markets are interesting, in particular Indonesia, which have a capability of tripling the arrivals in New Zealand by 2020. This was mentioned by Glennn Wedlock, a General Manager at Auckland Airport.