Foreign ship with casino to start service from Belawan<\/p>\n
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra<\/p>\n
A foreign cruise ship with an onboard casino will start operating
\nimmediately between Malaysia, Singapore, North Sumatra and Riau,
\nin a bid to lure tourists to the two provinces, according to an
\nofficial at the Ministry of Tourism.<\/p>\n
The plan to operate the ship, which will serve the ports of
\nPenang in Malaysia, Singapore, Belawan in North Sumatra and Dumai
\nand Batam in Riau, has gained the support of the Directorate
\nGeneral for Sea Transportation, the North Sumatra port authority
\nand local travel agencies.<\/p>\n
R. Sarwono, a senior official at the Ministry of Tourism, said
\nthat his office had encouraged regional administrations to take
\nan initiative in boosting tourism, including welcoming foreign
\ncruise ships to their ports, even though they had casinos.<\/p>\n
\"So far, the Ministry of Tourism has not raised any objections
\nto there being casinos on board these ships to help promote
\ntourism,\" he said at a seminar on cruise ship business here on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
He said it was time to open the province up to foreign cruise
\nships in a bid to boost cultural tourism.<\/p>\n
He said that cruise ships should be allowed to stop at North
\nSumatra and Riau to tempt tourists to visit the country's western
\nregion as many foreign ships frequently travel to islands in the
\neast.<\/p>\n
The director general for sea transportation at the Ministry of
\nTransportation, Loren Situmorang, said his office supported the
\nplan to develop tourism.<\/p>\n
He said that the Directorate General for Sea Transportation
\nhad opened about 2,141 seaports, especially for cruise ships.<\/p>\n
Loren said that there were still obstacles for foreign-flag
\ncruise ships stopping at seaports in Indonesian territory.<\/p>\n
Then transportation minister Azwar Anas issued a decree on
\nSept. 10, 1992, which prohibits gambling on board any ship
\ntraveling in Indonesian waters.<\/p>\n
Loren, however, said that the decree had been reviewed and the
\nauthority regulating gambling on board ships had been transferred
\nfrom the directorate to the National Police.<\/p>\n
He said that the number of cruise ships visiting the country
\nhad dropped over the past two years from 36 in 1999 to 32 in
\n2000.<\/p>\n
Last year, the number of foreign ships visiting the country
\nrose to 37 vessels, which carried 159,624 tourists. \"We heard
\nthat 10 cruise ships will travel here next year. There is no
\nconfirmation on that figure though,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Head of the province's tourism agency Pontas Pardede said that
\nforeign ships had been traveling to North Sumatra since 1973.<\/p>\n
He said the last cruise ship to dock at Belawan seaport was
\nthe Sun Vista, which is owned by a Singapore firm.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the MV Astor from Cyprus and the TS Albatros from
\nMonaco, each with a capacity of 300 passengers, had visited
\nBelawan.<\/p>\n
\"We were told that foreign cruise ships hesitated to dock at
\nBelawan because of Indonesia's gambling restriction and the
\nseaport's poor condition,\" Pontas told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the chairman of the North Sumatra branch of the
\nAssociation of Indonesian Travel Agencies (ASITA), Ben Sukma,
\nsaid that foreign cruise ships were unwilling to travel to
\nIndonesia due to various illegal fees.<\/p>\n
\"There has to be political will from the government to revoke
\nthe gambling restriction on board ships and to take harsh action
\nagainst the practice of illegal fees, otherwise foreign cruise
\nships will skip coming to Indonesia,\" he said.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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