After a hiatus of two decades, the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) will be
returning to Yogyakarta in Indonesia from 2-5 February 2023.
ATF 2023 – featuring the theme “ASEAN- Empower Talents, Embrace
Technology, Recover Tourism” – will mark the third time that ATF is held
in Indonesia, after the 2002 edition in Yogyakarta and 2012 edition in
Manado.
According to local media reports, Indonesia Minister of Tourism and
Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno believes that the ATF 2023, whose scale is
not unlike that of the G20 Bali Summit 2022, will be a wonderful
showcase of Yogyakarta's tourism readiness.
ATF 2023 expects to attract more than 2,000 participants from more
than 25 countries, including National Tourism Organization (NTO)
meetings, tourism ministers and officials, exhibitors, international
buyers, international and local media as well as trade visitors in the
tourism industry.
The Jogja Expo Center, which is among the biggest MICE facilities in Java, will be host venue for ATF 2023.
ATF is set to have 250 booths, of which 60% have been sold, according
to I Wayan Suweta Darma, director of Karma Events, which has been
appointed the official organiser of ATF 2023.
Besides accommodating exhibitors and buyers for the Travel Exchange
(Travex) from 20–22 January 2023, ATF 2023 also will comprise the B2C
session for the local industries in tourism and creative economy sector.
“In these two decades, a lot of changes have taken place in
Yogyakarta,” said Wayan told Travel Weekly Asia. “Not only can delegates
discover the UNESCO cultural wonders like Borobudur and Prambanan that
Yogyakarta is so famous for, they will also find a city that now has
strong tourism and MICE infrastructure in place.”
Connectivity between Yogyakarta and other Southeast Asian cities is
“building up” as borders reopen again, said Wayan. Both Malaysia and
Singapore already boast direct connections to Yogyakarta, while Thailand
is expected to launch direct flights to the city by end 2022.
The city now boasts the new Yogyakarta International Airport, which
opened earlier this year in April and serves as the gateway to the
entire Central Java region.
Yogyakarta's accommodation sector has been growing by leaps and
bounds in recent years. Recent additions include international branded
hotels like Novotel Suites Yogyakarta Malioboro and Yogyakarta Marriott
Hotel as well as prominent local hospitality brands like Artotel and
Aston.