Foreign arrivals rise, despite Marriott bombing<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Showing its resilience, the country posted an increase in foreign
\ntourist arrivals in August -- the same month when a powerful bomb
\nblast damaged a luxury Jakarta hotel and killed 12 people.<\/p>\n
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said on Wednesday that
\ndespite the terror attack, foreign tourist arrivals rose slightly
\nto 368,217 in August from 364,952 in July.<\/p>\n
\"The bomb blast at the JW Marriott Hotel on Aug. 5 dealt only
\na temporary shock,\" Sudarti Soerbakti, BPS chairperson, told a
\nmedia briefing.<\/p>\n
While arrivals at Jakarta's international airport fell to
\n84,600 in August from 98,100 posted in July, \"it had little
\nimpact on the number of arrivals in all parts of Indonesia,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The number of foreign tourist arrivals in the January to
\nAugust period, however, decreased by around 20 percent to 2.32
\nmillion compared to 2.89 million during the same period last
\nyear.<\/p>\n
The BPS report covers tourist arrivals at 13 entry points
\nincluding the country's main tourism destinations such as
\nJakarta, Bali and Batam.<\/p>\n
Arrivals in both Bali and Batam also experienced a rise in
\nAugust. Bali saw a 3 percent increase in August to 121,236, while
\narrivals in Batam rose from 113,099 to 123,474.<\/p>\n
Sudarti said that the rise was evidence that the country's
\ntourism sector remained on track in its recovery from a recent
\nslump arising from a series of shocks, both internal and
\nexternal.<\/p>\n
The industry has had to deal with a number of huge blows,
\nincluding last year's terrorist bombings in Bali, rising fears of
\nmilitant backlash against Westerners, and the recent outbreak of
\nSevere Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).<\/p>\n
These factors have forced the tourism ministry to cut its
\nforeign tourist arrival target this year by 33 percent to 3.2
\nmillion from 4.8 million. The foreign exchange revenue target
\nfrom the sector was also revised down from US$4.3 million to $2.8
\nmillion.<\/p>\n
Confirming BPS' upbeat outlook, the Pacific Asia Travel
\nAssociation (PATA) said that Indonesia's tourism industry had now
\nstabilized and could even expect a late-year surge in the number
\nof foreign arrivals.<\/p>\n
The chairman of PATA's Indonesian branch, Alistair Speirs, was
\nquoted by AFP as saying that provided there were no more attacks,
\nIndonesia could well see a surge in foreign arrivals in months to
\ncome.<\/p>\n
\"We think there is strong potential for the year-end because
\nour infrastructure is still there, the industry is very much
\nstill there, it just depends on bringing those foreign visitors
\nback,\" Speirs said in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Meiti Robot, chairwoman of the Association of the Indonesian
\nTours and Travel Agencies (Asita), said on the same occasion that
\nher office had started a tourism campaign targeting Australia,
\nNew Zealand, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and China.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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