ID :
62090
Sun, 05/24/2009 - 06:11
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/62090
The shortlink copeid
News Focus: INDONESIA OPTIMISTIC TO ATTRACT ONE MILLION EUROPEAN TOURISTS
By Eliswan Azly
Jakarta, May 23 (ANTARA) - With a rise of about 14 percent in the number of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia as reported by the Central Bureau of Statistics in May compared to that a year ago, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik was optimistic to lure one million tourists from Europe annually.
Such optimism was expressed when he was attending the opening of the "Tong Tong Market" in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Thursday.
According to him, there were some indicators that could be used to support his optimism such as intensive tourism promotions in a number of points in Europe like in Berlin, the World Tourism in London and the Pasar Tong Tong in the Netherlands.
"I believed the echo of Indonesia's tourism promotions would attract more European tourists to the country," Jero Wacik said.
At least, 700 thousands European tourists arrived in Indonesia. After all, in 2009, many efforts were being made to enable the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia to resume operations in Europe, the minister said.
The minister said that if the operation of Garuda to Europe could be reopened, Indonesia's tourism operators could well produce a kind of family tour packages.
He said that security in Indonesia had also been improving and services becoming faster, particularly with regard to the visa on arrival handling.
However, the minister said that the proceeds of tourism were not comparable to the funds the government spent for tourism promotions.
This year, he said, his ministry obtained Rp1.1 trillion for tourism promotion but income obtained from the tourism industries was only Rp7.5 billion.
"Therefore, we all have to be optimistic the target of one million tourist arrivals from Europe will be reached so that we will not have hoped and worked in vain," Jero Wacik said.
In the meantime, such a travel warning for Indonesia will be lifted by the U.S. State Department in late May, thus reflecting improved security, while Australia lowered travel warnings for two Indonesian provinces in late June.
"The United States is a symbol of the world`s community. Thus, if Americans are now free to go to Indonesia, Europeans will automatically be encouraged to follow suit. The lifting of the travel warning will also provide an opportunity and will psychologically restore the confidence of Indonesian tourism authorities," Presidential Dino Pati Djalal said recently.
The lifting of a US travel warning on Indonesia is expected to help increase the number of US tourists in addition to encouraging more tourists from European regions to visit Indonesia in 2009.
"The lifting of the travel warning which has been in force since 2000 is something we have been awaiting for a long time," Dino Pati Djalal said.
He said before the US government officially revoked the travel warning, its embassy in Jakarta had notified the Indonesian government on Washington`s plan to lift it.
At the end of 2007 in Bali, Indonesia also successfully hosted the UN Convention on Climate Change which was attended by a number of heads of state and prominent figures from various parts of the world.
"The whole world now knows that Indonesia is secure. As for the threat of terrorist activity, it can happen anywhere," Djalal said.
According to H. Sarbini, chairman of the Tourist Friendship Forum (Fosipa), the United States` decision to lift its travel warning to its citizens to visit Indonesia, provides a big opportunity for tourism authorities in the country to resume luring American and European tourists to come to Indonesia.
At present, tourist promotion campaigns have been staged through Indonesia's Seven Tourism Promotion Centers (P3I) abroad, namely in Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, London and Taipei. Since 1989 the Indonesia Tourism Promotion Agency (BPPI) developed new markets and improved promotion programs.
BPPI promotion efforts both at home and abroad was financed by 20% of the development tax revenue in ten tourist destinations, namely: North Sumatra, the Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, the Yogyakarta, East Java, Bali, North Sulawesi, and South Sulawesi.
However, due the protracted monetary crisis which hit Indonesia the fund collected from the ten tourist destinations was only sufficient for BPPI operational cost until August 1997. To overcome this problem various marketing's efforts had been conducted in Singapore, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, America, England, the Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland, he said.
In fiscal year 1997/98, an integrated promotion program was designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness, of marketing by reexamining the role and responsibility of agencies involved in overseas tourism marketing while utilizing all related components including Indonesian delegations abroad as well as students and the foreign media.
Sarbini said several important tourism events abroad in which Indonesia participated among others were: International Travel Expo, June 1997 in Hong Kong; Holiday and Travel Show, June 1997 in Sydney; World Travel Market, November 1997 in London; Diving Equipment Marketing Association (DEMA), January 1998 in Orlando, Florida; and Internationale Tourismus Borse, March 1998 in Berlin.
In fiscal year 1997/98, international tourist activities held in Indonesia, were: Krakatau Festival in Lampung; the Culture Enchantment and Folk Performances Festival in Jakarta; Maleman Sriwedari and Obral Gedhe Solo in Central Java; and International Wind Surfing Competition in West Nusa Tenggara, Bali and South East Sulawesi.
By intensifying the promotion of tourist attractions and objects in Indonesia, he was sure that tourist arrivals in this year would be higher than that of last year. ***
Jakarta, May 23 (ANTARA) - With a rise of about 14 percent in the number of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia as reported by the Central Bureau of Statistics in May compared to that a year ago, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik was optimistic to lure one million tourists from Europe annually.
Such optimism was expressed when he was attending the opening of the "Tong Tong Market" in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Thursday.
According to him, there were some indicators that could be used to support his optimism such as intensive tourism promotions in a number of points in Europe like in Berlin, the World Tourism in London and the Pasar Tong Tong in the Netherlands.
"I believed the echo of Indonesia's tourism promotions would attract more European tourists to the country," Jero Wacik said.
At least, 700 thousands European tourists arrived in Indonesia. After all, in 2009, many efforts were being made to enable the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia to resume operations in Europe, the minister said.
The minister said that if the operation of Garuda to Europe could be reopened, Indonesia's tourism operators could well produce a kind of family tour packages.
He said that security in Indonesia had also been improving and services becoming faster, particularly with regard to the visa on arrival handling.
However, the minister said that the proceeds of tourism were not comparable to the funds the government spent for tourism promotions.
This year, he said, his ministry obtained Rp1.1 trillion for tourism promotion but income obtained from the tourism industries was only Rp7.5 billion.
"Therefore, we all have to be optimistic the target of one million tourist arrivals from Europe will be reached so that we will not have hoped and worked in vain," Jero Wacik said.
In the meantime, such a travel warning for Indonesia will be lifted by the U.S. State Department in late May, thus reflecting improved security, while Australia lowered travel warnings for two Indonesian provinces in late June.
"The United States is a symbol of the world`s community. Thus, if Americans are now free to go to Indonesia, Europeans will automatically be encouraged to follow suit. The lifting of the travel warning will also provide an opportunity and will psychologically restore the confidence of Indonesian tourism authorities," Presidential Dino Pati Djalal said recently.
The lifting of a US travel warning on Indonesia is expected to help increase the number of US tourists in addition to encouraging more tourists from European regions to visit Indonesia in 2009.
"The lifting of the travel warning which has been in force since 2000 is something we have been awaiting for a long time," Dino Pati Djalal said.
He said before the US government officially revoked the travel warning, its embassy in Jakarta had notified the Indonesian government on Washington`s plan to lift it.
At the end of 2007 in Bali, Indonesia also successfully hosted the UN Convention on Climate Change which was attended by a number of heads of state and prominent figures from various parts of the world.
"The whole world now knows that Indonesia is secure. As for the threat of terrorist activity, it can happen anywhere," Djalal said.
According to H. Sarbini, chairman of the Tourist Friendship Forum (Fosipa), the United States` decision to lift its travel warning to its citizens to visit Indonesia, provides a big opportunity for tourism authorities in the country to resume luring American and European tourists to come to Indonesia.
At present, tourist promotion campaigns have been staged through Indonesia's Seven Tourism Promotion Centers (P3I) abroad, namely in Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, London and Taipei. Since 1989 the Indonesia Tourism Promotion Agency (BPPI) developed new markets and improved promotion programs.
BPPI promotion efforts both at home and abroad was financed by 20% of the development tax revenue in ten tourist destinations, namely: North Sumatra, the Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, the Yogyakarta, East Java, Bali, North Sulawesi, and South Sulawesi.
However, due the protracted monetary crisis which hit Indonesia the fund collected from the ten tourist destinations was only sufficient for BPPI operational cost until August 1997. To overcome this problem various marketing's efforts had been conducted in Singapore, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, America, England, the Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland, he said.
In fiscal year 1997/98, an integrated promotion program was designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness, of marketing by reexamining the role and responsibility of agencies involved in overseas tourism marketing while utilizing all related components including Indonesian delegations abroad as well as students and the foreign media.
Sarbini said several important tourism events abroad in which Indonesia participated among others were: International Travel Expo, June 1997 in Hong Kong; Holiday and Travel Show, June 1997 in Sydney; World Travel Market, November 1997 in London; Diving Equipment Marketing Association (DEMA), January 1998 in Orlando, Florida; and Internationale Tourismus Borse, March 1998 in Berlin.
In fiscal year 1997/98, international tourist activities held in Indonesia, were: Krakatau Festival in Lampung; the Culture Enchantment and Folk Performances Festival in Jakarta; Maleman Sriwedari and Obral Gedhe Solo in Central Java; and International Wind Surfing Competition in West Nusa Tenggara, Bali and South East Sulawesi.
By intensifying the promotion of tourist attractions and objects in Indonesia, he was sure that tourist arrivals in this year would be higher than that of last year. ***
