The Ministry of Tourism Republic of Indonesia and AirAsia, the world’s best low-cost airline, has officially unveiled a collaboration to drive tourism efforts in promoting the wonders of Indonesia in Malaysia through the vast connectivity the airline offers across the Indonesian archipelago.

The launch event was held previously and attended by Judi Rifajantoro, Professional Staff to the Minister on Tourism Infrastructure, Ministry of Tourism Republic of Indonesia; Robert D. Waloni, Senior Advisor to the Minister for Air Accessibility, Ministry of Tourism Republic of Indonesia; Aireen Omar, CEO of AirAsia Berhad; and Rifai Taberi, Commercial Director of Indonesia AirAsia.

"Under the joint promotion for the media campaign we have announced today, we hope AirAsia will cater more travellers to Indonesia and more people especially Malaysians can experience Indonesia thanks to AirAsia’s numerous routes. This is obviously part of a much broader agenda of collaboration with airlines and the community," said Judi Rifajantoro, Professional Staff to the Minister on Tourism Infrastructure, Ministry of Tourism Republic of Indonesia.

Aireen Omar, CEO of AirAsia Berhad said, “As a truly Asean airline, we are committed to promote tourism to all countries in the region. We are pleased to be in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism Republic of Indonesia with an aim to boost tourism into Indonesia and Malaysia and promote social cohesiveness between both countries. The beauty of AirAsia lies in our connectivity that offers an extensive network covering unique routes beyond the metro cities in many of the countries that we fly to. Aside from our main hub in Kuala Lumpur, we also operate from our other Malaysian hubs such as Kuching, Penang and Johor with additional Fly-Thru points to connect guests into Indonesia. Furthermore, our holistic accessibility also ensures that people from different parts of Indonesia can travel into and within Malaysia seamlessly from one destination to another.

“This partnership could not be more timely as we have been seeing a robust demand for Malaysia and Indonesia. In 2016, we have flown more than 4 million guests between both countries to contribute significantly to the tourist arrivals last year and this is only a fraction of the great potential we can achieve. We look forward to this commitment with the Ministry of Tourism Republic of Indonesia and we are confident that we can further increase more tourist traffic and income for both countries,” she added.

The collaboration will see both parties focusing on marketing efforts in terms of brand advertising, promotional activities and activations across various touch points including digital, print, radio, in-flight branding, consumer selling travel fair and more.

AirAsia connects Malaysia with Indonesia through more than 350 times weekly flights to 15 different cities such as Banda Aceh, Bandung, Bali, Jakarta, Lombok, Medan, Pekanbaru, Palembang, Padang, Pontianak, Semarang, Solo, Surabaya, Makassar, and Yogyakarta. The airline has also recently added more frequencies to several routes in Indonesia and have launched direct flights from Kuching to Pontianak to meet the growing travel demand from both countries.