Airport blast hits tourism industry<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Sunday's bomb blast at Soekarno-Hatta Airport will further damage
\nthe tourist industry in the city, which has already been
\nsuffering due to the fears of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
\n(SARS) and the impact of the Iraq war, an official says.<\/p>\n
Jakarta Tourism Agency chief Aurora Tambunan has expressed her
\nconcern over the bomb blast, saying that the incident has
\nrendered her recent foreign trip to introduce Jakarta as a
\ntourist destination useless.<\/p>\n
"On my tour, I told them that Jakarta was safe and was a good
\nplace for them to visit. With the bomb blast at the international
\nairport, what can I say now?," Aurora told the press when asked
\nto comment on the bomb blast.<\/p>\n
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is one of the 13 gateways
\nused by tourists when coming to the country. The blast, which
\ninjured 11 people, took place just three days after a low
\nexplosive bomb exploded behind the UN building in Central
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
This year, Indonesia has set a target of attracting 3.8
\nmillion foreign tourists with Jakarta being earmarked for some 20
\npercent of this number. The figure reached 3.81 million last
\nyear, which was lower than the previous year's number of 3.88
\nmillion.<\/p>\n
The hotel occupancy rate in the city earlier this month was
\nonly around 28 percent on average.<\/p>\n
In March, Aurora and her entourage visited the International
\nTourismus Borse in Berlin, Germany, to promote the tourist
\nindustry in Jakarta. Earlier this year, she also visited several
\ncountries in the Middle East on the same mission.<\/p>\n
The city administration is trying to promote tourism shopping
\nin Jakarta, and also packaged tours like Jakarta-Puncak-Bandung
\nand Jakarta-Java-Bali-Lombok trips.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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