While Indonesia was the worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami waves with an estimated 80,000 deaths in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam and part of North Sumatra, it had little impact…
While Indonesia was the worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami waves with an estimated 80,000 deaths in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam and part of North Sumatra, it had little impact on tourism in the country.
Speaking at the year-end press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mr Jero Wacik, said: A natural disaster can happen anytime, anywhere, therefore, I do not think travellers will stop travelling because of the recent earth quake and tsunami.
Besides, (except for some parts of Nias), our tourist destinations are not affected. While the total number of arrivals to Indonesia was not yet available, Mr Wacik said preliminary counts showed arrivals could reach 5.3 million.
He said the 100-day programme on tourism, which ends this month, includes Visa-on-Arrival (VoA) evaluation. To speed up services, Bali airport has increased the number of immigration counters from 10 to 22 from the 30 counters planned.
We expect by early February, our Consulate in Guangzhou will be able to issue visas for travellers from China.
On programmes for 2005, the minister said several programmes have been set to achieve the six million arrivals` figure and US$6 billion earnings. Besides marketing in the traditional markets such as Europe, we will also focus on China, Middle East and India, he said.
A talk with Singapore Tourism Board has resulted in a joint-promotion in China for a two-in-one destination, creating packages combining Singapore and Indonesian destinations as a means to increase the number of tourists from China to Indonesia, according to Mr Wacik.
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