Indonesian tourism boom for Gold Coast

THE Gold Coast is a 'Muslim friendly' destination ready to take a bigger slice of the emerging middle class Indonesian market.Tourism Queensland said the Asian neighbour was seen as the new boom market, last year reporting a visitor increase of 17 per cent.

While China and India remain the Coast's strongest international visitors, wealthy middle class Indonesian residents are starting to travel more frequently to Queensland, using the Gold Coast as its anchor stop.

Tourism heavyweights hope the arrival of Scoot  a low cost wing of Singapore Airlines which will fly direct to the Gold Coast in June  will further strengthen the figures.Last year, 21,000 Indonesians visited Queensland. To put this in perspective, there were 28,000 Indians who visited the state, an increase of 22 per cent.

''This is a market on the rebound. Before the Asian crisis, Indonesia was a significant market,'' said Khym Lim, Tourism Queensland's international director of South East Asia.''We are now seeing them come back,'' she said.

Ms Lim, speaking at Tourism Queensland's international market briefings at Surfers Paradise yesterday said the trend was to fly to Melbourne or Sydney for one night and then spend three nights on the Gold Coast.The market increase has been attributed to a stabilisation in country's political scenario and a growth in their economy.

TQ's Million Dollar Memo campaign  which saw companies from around the world compete for the chance to win $1 million holiday  was won by an Indonesian auto parts manufacturer ADR group, further strengthening the ties between the two nations.Tourism Queensland international executive director Wendy Harch said the city was 'exactly' what the Indonesian travellers were after.

''Indonesia has been on our watchlist for a while and now it has crept back up showing similar figures to India,'' she said.Ms Harch said the travellers were cashed up, looking for Western interaction in a destination which was 'Muslim friendly'.

''The prayer rooms which are at Dreamworld and elsewhere across the Coast, the Ramadan lounge at The Hilton, it's all these things that impact the destination positively,'' she said.At the briefing, Ms Harch said TQ was working hard in strengthening their Japanese, Korean, US, Europe and UK markets.

Last year, there was a 7 per cent drop in international figures overall, but Ms Harch said anecdotal evidence showed strong growth so far this year.She said Hawaii remained a threat for the Japanese and Korean honeymooners, but TQ would continue to push for market share in those countries.

Source - goldcoast.com.au