RealEstat.id (Jakarta) - The halal tourism market is developing rapidly in recent years. In 2016 alone, there were 121 million international muslim tourists. One of the biggest is muslim tourists from China. This potential needs to be optimized by Indonesia to gain more foreign exchange and support people's economy.
This was stated by President Director of Riyadh Group Indonesia, Bally Saputra, after signing the MoU (memorandum of understanding) between Riyadh Group Indonesia and Indonesia-China Halal Cooperation (ICHC), Thursday (14/5/2020).
"Indonesia has great potential to develop halal tourism, in terms of culinary, natural beauty, and religious tourism. Currently, the Muslim population in China is around 160 million, so if 10% can be invited here, then there are around 16 million tourists will come to Indonesia," said Bally Saputra. “This collaboration with ICHC was carried out in preparation for post COVID-19 pandemic, when tourism is predicted to boom.”
In the initial phase, Riyadh Group Indonesia and ICHC will cooperate with local governments that have halal and religious tourism destinations such as Jakarta, Banten, West Java, Aceh, West Sumatra, Riau and West Nusa Tenggara. But it is possible that these destinations will be expanded.
"These provinces have halal tourist destinations that have been highly visited by Chinese tourists," said Bally.
Besides attracting Muslim tourists from China to Indonesia, said Bally, Riyadh Group and ICHC agreed to facilitate investment and project development in tourism, property, trading, and infrastructure.
As an experienced property and tourism company for many years, he added, Riyadh Group Indonesia will prepare destinations for Muslim tourists from China and find strategic partners in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Founder and Chairman of ICHC, Irwan Tirtakusuma said that ICHC will implement and finance projects developed in Indonesia, including finding investors or contractors.
"ICHC is also committed to providing facilities to local governments and Indonesian tourism entrepreneurs who want to do promotions in China. This effort is needed to provide more information about tourism and Indonesian culture to people in China," Irwan Tirtakusuma stated.
ICHC, which is headquartered in Beijing, China, has been known as a non-governmental organization that serves consultations for Chinese halal food or products to be exported to Indonesia, as well as tour and travel consultations for Chinese Muslims to Indonesia and vice versa.
