Surabaya joins Asia Pacific tourism network
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Surabaya city in East Java province by ways of the Surabaya Tourism Promotion Board (STPB) has joined the Tourism Promotion Organization for Asia Pacific Cities (TPO), which covers various cities in the Asia and Pacific region, and a membership of 56 cities in 12 countries
The countries including Malaysia, Japan, China, the Philippines, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, America, and Russia, Executive Director of STPB Yusak Anshori said in a press release sent from Guangzhou, China on Thursday.
Anshori said that the global tourism market continued to grow while Asia and the Pacific had become one of the most attractive tourist destinations.
Joining the TPO would strengthen Indonesia`s tourism network, Surabaya in particular, so that the East Java provincial capital would become more popular to the outside world.
"Joining the TPO would increase the opportunity to lure investors in the tourism sector," said Yusak, who is also Deputy Marketing Director of Prime Plaza Hotel & Resort.
He also said that after joining the TPO, the STPB had a chance to attend the 3rd TPO General Assembly in Guangzhou attended by representatives of tourism organizations in Asia and the Pacific as members of the organization.
The meeting discussed efforts of increasing the number of foreign tourists by issuing TPO traveller`s cards which covered all the TPO members, in addition to the exchange program for students as long-term tourism investment, joint overseas marketing, and development of the routes of cruise ships to all cities of TPO member countries.
TPO was founded on August 31, 2002, and its presidency is currently held by the mayor of Busan, Korea, Nam Sik Hur, and his deputy is mayor of Fukuoka, Japan, Hiroshi Yoshida.
The organization is aimed at tourist information exchange, joint marketing and promotion, development and promoting tourist products, development of human resources, research on tourism and tourism statistics management. (*)
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