Romania, Indonesia forge tourism partnership

   Representatives of Romanian and Indonesian travel agency associations met in Bucharest on Monday to set the groundwork for the cooperation between the two countries' tour operators and to design tourist packages to both destinations.Vice-President of the Indonesian Travel Agencies Association Rocky Praputranto told Agerpres that the cooperation plans are welcome, particularly as in 2025 the two countries mark 75 years of bilateral relations.As we mark the 75th anniversary of Romania - Indonesia bilateral relations, I believe that now is the right time to start a tourist exchange between the two countries, in both directions. This is also the reason why we are here, to look at how we can organize a tourist package for Indonesia, which would include Romania and other surrounding countries, but also tourist packages for Romanian visitors to Indonesia. Currently, Romanian tourists traveling to Indonesia are not precisely monitored, we don't know for sure where they end up, if they visit Java, Sumatra or other places, considering that Indonesia has over 17,000 islands. The same happens the other way around, Indonesian tourists who come to Romania are not clearly registered, because they take tours through several countries, going for example from Indonesia to Istanbul, then to Romania, then to Sofia, which makes keeping count of their exact number difficult. For this reason, we want to start a cooperation between Indonesian and Romanian tour operators, so that in the future we can have a clearer picture of the tourist flow between the two countries, Rocky Praputranto told an event organized at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Romania.President of Romania's National Travel Agencies Association (ANAT) Alin Burcea declared for Agerpres that Indonesians could travel more easily to Romania if they could receive entry visas from the capital city Jakarta."This year we celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations between Romania and Indonesia and we, as a national tourism association, have an understandable interest, because there are 50,000 Romanians who travel to Indonesia. They generally go to Bali, but they should also get acquainted with other destinations, because this is not the only region. And the greater interest is to bring Indonesians to Romania, because they have a population of roughly 280 million. However, the issue with the visas had to be solved, because they are not yet issued in Jakarta. But it will probably be sorted out, and the goal is to bring tourists to Romania. They usually do not come just for one country, they come to see Romania, Hungary and other states, generally they come to Europe. But we have no problem in making bookings for Hungary, Germany or Austria. These days we have eight Indonesian tourism representatives as guests in Bucharest and together with the Embassy we organized them a tour of Romania, to see Brasov, Transylvania with the Dracula lore, Bucharest, so that they leave with some hard-fact information," said Burcea.At the event organized at the Indonesian Embassy, ambassador Meidyatama Suryodiningrat and head of the Foreign Ministry's Asia Pacific and Latin America Directorate Diana Tase unveiled the logo marking 75 years of bilateral relations between the two countries.I am very proud that, during my term as ambassador, Romania - Indonesia bilateral relations have reached an all-time peak. In recent years, more precisely since 2022, bilateral trade has increased by 35%. But what makes me most proud is that the direct personal links between our people have reached a new level. The number of Indonesians who study and work in Romania has doubled in the last two years. Also, more than 52,000 Romanians have visited Indonesia. I always say that I do not have exact statistics about their destinations, but I can assume that most of them went to one place. Against this background, we are organizing today, with the support of ANAT, a forum that brings together tour operators and associations from Indonesia and Romania. Beyond the commercial aspect, I believe that tourism is one of the most important means by which the horizon of understanding between Indonesians and Romanians can be expanded. Therefore, it is appropriate that in the opening of this forum, which is mainly intended to facilitate travel between the two countries, we also launch the logo that marks the anniversary of 75 years of Romania - Indonesia bilateral relations, said ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia Meidyatama Suryodiningrat.The Foreign Ministry's Director for Asia Pacific and Latin America Diana Tase stated that Romania intends to cooperate with Indonesia on developing economic partnerships."Strengthening bilateral relations between countries such as Romania and the Republic of Indonesia is all the more important in times like these, when the international context is fraught with conflicts and uncertainties. Romania is determined to explore and capitalize on dialogue and cooperation opportunities, especially as regards economy, trade, education, people-to-people contacts and tourism. Therefore we remain open to a tighter cooperation on topics of shared interest, such as scaling up and diversifying trade, or the development of tourism - an area you are focusing on today, education, biodiversity or health care," said Diana Tase.