Public-private partnerships ‘must to promote’ tourism

The importance, given to everyone, as well as the significance accorded to public-private partnerships (PPS) are the essentials in order for global tourism to advance.

This is from the Sept.19-25 “West Bandung Business Matching and Familiarisation Tour,” a PPP initiative led by the Indonesian Consulate General-Dubai and relative to Sept.25-published “Travel & Tourism Development Index 2026” of the World Economic Forum.

The report, that aims to provide stakeholders “comparable evidence to identify the conditions and policies that help travel and tourism grow sustainably, withstand disruption and support a country’s development,” notes that while “travel opportunities and attractions are expanding,” there has also been a “growing interest in experience-based travel and UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage.”

Meanwhile, the private institution World Travel & Tourism Council had forecast that the industry, projected to breed 376 million jobs, would contribute $12 trillion (D441 trillion) to the world economy, throughout 2026.

“I would add that the hospitality deserves special mention. Everywhere we went, we experienced warmth and enthusiasm from the people we met,” ANTA Group UAE/KSA/Oman Group general manager Kumar Jagadeesan told Gulf Today.

Jagadeesan continued: “What impressed me equally was their commitment to bringing West Bandung to the international tourism map.”

Jagadeesan, who, alongside Vista Maritime Travel Business Development manager Muhammad Faizan and ITL World Leisure & MICE Business head Mehbob Rehman were asked of the three West Bandung best attractions, added: “The passion is important because destinations are not built only by attractions. They are built by people who believe in them such as the Lembang Floating Market, Africa-Asia, NuArt Sculpture Park, the Lembang Park & Zoo, and the Chanaya Resort.”

In the industry for 30 years, Jagadeesan said: “Travel is ultimately about people and experiences. It is not merely selling airline seats, hotel rooms, and itineraries. It is helping people discover places, create memories, connect with cultures, and sometimes experience something that changes the way we see the world.”

For Jagadeesan, Faizan, and Rehman, the morning walk through the two craters, birthed from the 2013 and 2019 eruptions of the Tangkuban Perahu (Flipped Boat) Volcano in Lembang, tops the list of the best attractions.

The 2,084-metre above sea level mountain, which has an interesting love story folklore and which so far possesses 13 craters, since its first eruption in 1829, has one of its craters sporadically releasing foetid egg-rotten stench. Its eye-dropping erratic gurgling of ash and lava comes with the billowing wave-like hiss – heard – from even afar and up the thick vegetation.

Jagadeesan described “the crater” as “nature at its most dramatic.”

Rehman and Faizan connected this wonder, with the other densely wooded elevations, from which waterfalls naturally cascade and even hot springs become a pleasure.

“After a day of travelling and exploring, being able to unwind in natural hot springs is a wonderful combination of wellness and nature,” said Rehman of the Maribaya Hot Springs.

Dubai Travel and Tourism Agency Group president/International Air Transport Association Agency Programme Joint Council-Gulf Region vice chairman/ Orient Travel & Tourism Agency Group chief executive officer Asim Arshad, on PPPs, said that the private sector who may be the investors in, or owners of facilities and logistics, “cannot work standalone. They have to cooperate and collaborate with tourism authorities of countries to organise events, promote destinations, and promote tourism projects.”

“And that is where I mentioned that the Indonesian Tourism Board or the Bandung Tourism Board has a very important role to promote a destination,” Arshad also said, adding that these have the “budgets” for all the advertising and promotional campaigns which may extend to “festivals, cultural events, sporting activities, and so many others that get tourists into the country.”

Enquired of his take on over-tourism – a global concern – Uranus Travel and Tours-Corporate Travel & Retail manager Godfrey Lopez offered suggestions for this to be preventable and therefore avert the consequential “pollution, hygiene issues, overcrowding, damages to infrastructure and heritage sites, among others.”

These are higher taxes and fees to discourage travel to the destination; pre-booking entries so that the “number of visitors stays within safe limits;” and the development of “nearby sites” to thin out the concentration of tourists, “thereby limiting the disadvantages.”