Singapore assists improvement of good image of Indonesian tourism

Singapore has helped improve the once good image and the recovery of the Indonesian tourism industry in…

Singapore has helped improve the once good image and the recovery of the Indonesian tourism industry in international fora after the Bali bomb blasts and the JW Marriott hotel bombing on August 5, 2003, an executive said.

The Singapore Tourism Board tries to assure Singaporeans and other foreigners that Indonesia is serious in investigating the blasts. Therefore they should not hesitate to visit the country, Aloysius Arlando, director of the STB`s ASEAN Region, said. He said that it would also assist Indonesia that it would be constantly visited by foreign tourists through the country`s mass media.

According to Aloysius, the STB would invite Indonesian tourism operators to Singapore to step up cooperation and promote tourism. The Singaporean side will also do the same, he added. The Bali bombings caused a sharp drop in tourist arrivals in tourist resort island.

The Denpasar district court Wednesday sentenced Abdul Aziz alias Imam Samudra (35) to death for plotting and executing the bomb blasts that killed at least 202 people, mostly Australian vacationers, in Bali on October 12 last year. Abdul Aziz is the intellectual mastermind of the bombings. Relatives and friends of the victims of the bombings hailed the death sentence. Ketut Jontri, a Balinese woman whose husband, a taxi driver, was killed in the blast, said she was very pleased with the sentence.

Tens of British and Australian nationals, including the family members of the blast victims will attend a ceremony in the Bali capital of Denpasar on October 12, 2003, in remembrance of the victims of the tragedy.

Meanwhile the JW Marriott hotel blast claimed the lives of at least 12 people, including a Dutchman, and injured a number of people. Police detained some suspects of the hotel bombing.

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