Indonesia Tourism Promotion Board Established

The new Indonesia Tourism Promotion Board (ITPB), run independently by the private sector, has been formed to support the government’s destination promotion efforts and to replace the former IPTB which became inactive in the early 2000s. ITPB will receive a seed fund of 23 billion rupiah (US$2.6 million) from the authorities, which can only be used on destination promotion programmes. Indonesia’s deputy minister of tourism and creative economy, Sapta Nirwandar, said the fund was the government’s way of investing in ITPB, which “will need to generate income to develop more programmes”. ITPB will start off with three key programmes, focusing on generating arrivals during low season, and developing creative tourism and green tourism. Detailed programmes are being drawn up and will be presented to the minister of tourism and creative economy after ATF. ITPB chairman, Wiryanti Sukamdani, said the role of the new body would not overlap with that of the ministry’s directorate general of marketing. South Sulawesi Tourism Board vice chairman, Nico Pasaka, said: “I’m confident that the board members are people who are dedicated to the development of tourism, but I feel that there are a couple of things that might cause hindrance."