Foreign tourist arrivals drop 19.5 percent<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Foreign tourist arrivals in October plunged 19.5 percent
\ncompared with the previous month, when anti-American sentiment in
\nthe country rose on the tail of the United State's retaliation
\nattacks in Afghanistan, a senior official said.<\/p>\n
State Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardika said on
\nTuesday that threats of "sweeping" activities against foreigners,
\nespecially American citizens, had led some governments to issue
\nwarnings to their citizens against travel to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
This had caused many potential visitors to cancel their plans
\nto visit the country, he said.<\/p>\n
"Visitor arrivals dropped 15.81 percent compared to the same
\nperiod last year," Ardika said, explaining that October last year
\nsaw the arrival of 369,386 people compared with 310,997 in
\nOctober this year.<\/p>\n
The Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. had caused visitor arrivals
\nat the 13 main points of entry to decrease 3.7 percent to 386.182
\ncompared with August and the same period last year. September had
\nseen growth of just 2.3 percent.<\/p>\n
The 13 points of entry in Indonesia are airports in Jakarta,
\nBali, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, East Java, Central Java, West
\nNusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, and South Sulawesi; sea ports in
\nBatam, Jakarta, and Riau; and the land-border crossing in
\nEntikong, West Kalimantan.<\/p>\n
Ardika said that the decrease had led the government to adjust
\nits 2001 foreign visitors target to between 5.1 million and 5.2
\nmillion from initial estimates of 5.4 million.<\/p>\n
"We predict that we would only be able to achieve about 97
\npercent of the target," he said in a hearing with the House of
\nRepresentatives Commission VI overseeing human resources and
\nreligious affairs.<\/p>\n
As a result, the government's foreign exchange target of
\nUS$5.3 billion from tourism this year could also not be met,
\nArdika said.<\/p>\n
Last year's target of 5.1 million was also not reached with
\ntotal arrivals from all points of entry recorded at 5.064 million
\npeople.<\/p>\n
However, Ardika said that the government would not revise down
\nits 2002 target of 5.8 million visitors as yet, saying that his
\noffice would closely monitor developments before adjusting the
\ntargets.<\/p>\n
Ardika also said that in order to offset the negative effects
\nof media coverage against the country's image, a more aggressive
\ntourism marketing and promotion would be targeted at medium and
\nshort-haul markets such as to China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan,
\nAustralia, and to member countries of the Association of South
\nEast Asian Nations (ASEAN).<\/p>\n
"We will also focus our marketing efforts on countries in
\nEastern Europe, Russia, South Africa, the Middle East, and
\nIndia," he added.<\/p>\n
Ardika also said that during December, the government had
\narranged the showing of 60 second and 30 second Indonesian
\ntourism promotions on CNN and BBC which would be aired 500 times
\nand 250 times respectively.<\/p>\n
"We hope that with this aggressive promotion we will be able
\nto recover the country's image," he said, adding that the
\nadvertisements had cost $5 million from the state budget.<\/p>",
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