MOST OF TOURISTS VISITING MALUKU COME FROM EUROPE

Jakarta, June 7 (ANTARA) - Most of foreign tourists visiting Maluku province come from European countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and France, a tourism official said.

"Of the 3,000 foreign tourist arrivals in Maluku in 2008 about 70 percent were made by European tourists," chief of Maluku's Tourism and Culture Service, Rosmita Pawa, said here over the weekend.

She said the remaining 30 percent foreign tourist arrivals came from various other countries in Asia such as Japan, South Korea and India.

"The local government of Maluku sets a target of 5,000 to 8,000 foreign tourist arrivals in the province in 2009," Rosmita said on the sidelines of the National Tourism Expo at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC).

She said that in order to realize the target her office had made intensive efforts such as launching promotions and taking part in exhibitions to introduce the province's tourism potentials.

In the meantime, director for tourism convention, incentive and promotion affairs of the directorate general for tourism and culture, Nia Nurcaya said that the number of foreign tourists who visited Indonesia during the first quarter of this year reached 1,893,155.

"Most of the foreign tourists who arrived in the country in the first quarter of this year came from Australia, Malaysia and China,"
She said that the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2009 increased 1.53 percent if compared to those arriving in the same period a year earlier.

The increase in the tourist visits in the first quarter is significant and encouraging as it happens at a time when the country is facing the impact of global economic crisis.

Nia said that the international tourist flows in other countries in the first quarter of 2009 were actually declining.***5***