ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – PT Aviasi Wisata Indonesia (Persero) or InJourney and Thai airline, Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (Thai Airways) signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of Bangkok – Yogyakarta air connectivity.
InJourney Marketing and Tourism Program Director Maya Watono said that the collaboration between InJourney and Thai Airways aims to improve air connectivity between Thailand and Indonesia, especially the Borobudur Temple tourism destination. The development of this interconnectivity is expected to increase the growth of tourist movements which will ultimately be able to encourage the development of potential tourism destinations in Indonesia, especially in Central Java.
“We understand that the interest of tourists with special interests such as spiritual pilgrims at Borobudur Temple is very high, for this reason we are developing air connectivity in collaboration with Thai Airways,” said Maya Watono, Monday, August 19 2024.
Maya said that there are 530 million Buddhists in the world, while the number of Buddhists in Asia is 490 million or around 92% of the number of Buddhists in the world.
The number of Buddhists in Southeast Asia is 120 million and the number of Buddhists in Thailand is 64 million or 53% of the total number of Buddhists in Southeast Asia. This amount has the potential to open air connectivity for Thailand to Borobudur Temple.
Meanwhile, the number of visits to Borobudur Temple during peak season was 1.4 million, both domestic and foreign tourists. Of this number, 10% or around 140,000 were visits from foreign tourists. With this huge potential number and with the opening of air connectivity between Thailand via Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA), InJourney targets a 5-fold increase in visits from foreign tourists in the future.
“Of course, as a holding company, we are committed to providing subsidiary synergy to create a seamless experience starting from aviation services, airports, to destination management to build Borobudur as a spiritual destination,” added Maya.
Meanwhile, Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA) is the main air gateway for tourists entering Yogyakarta and its surroundings, including Borobudur Temple.
Until April 2024, foreign tourist visits from YIA reached 177,516 from 107 countries with a portion of 57% direct and 43% indirect. The largest connectivity comes from Singapore at 39%, Malaysia at 35%, and Thailand at 5%.
YIA was built as a solution to the problem of lack of capacity at Adi Sutjipto Airport, which can only accommodate 1.6 million passengers per year. With YIA, passengers served can reach 20 million passengers per year. Moreover, the existence of YIA Airport in the Special Region of Yogyakarta and Central Java, which is rich in culture and tourism, has a great opportunity to be optimized.
It is hoped that flights from Thailand to Yogyakarta via YIA will increase the number of tourist visits to Yogyakarta and its surroundings. In the future, YIA will also collaborate with airports in Thailand to create sister airports so that the increase in tourists in these two countries can be well established. (ATN)
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