Foreign tourist numbers drop 6%<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
With a dip in foreign tourist arrivals already evident this year,
\nas compared to the year before, the Ministry of Culture and
\nTourism has allocated US$10 million to promote tourism for next
\nyear, higher than some $6 million set aside this year.<\/p>\n
Foreign tourists visiting the country between January and
\nOctober reached 3.5 million, about 7 percent lower than the
\nfigure booked in the same period in the previous year.<\/p>\n
At the current pace, "foreign tourist arrivals this year would
\nreach about 5 million, which will be some 6 percent lower than
\n2005's 5.23 million tourists," an report from the ministry
\nreleased on Thursday showed.<\/p>\n
The government's official full-year target is 6 million.<\/p>\n
The fund would be taken from some Rp 600 billion (around $60
\nmillion) the ministry received from the state budget, said
\nMinister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik.<\/p>\n
With the increase in the promotion allocation, Jero was
\noptimistic that next year would see tourist arrivals increase to
\n5.5 million.<\/p>\n
"The Malaysian government spent $60 million this year to
\npromote tourism and managed to attract 12 million overseas
\ntourists, while Indonesia needed only $6 million to lure 5
\nmillion", he replied when asked the reason for his optimisms.<\/p>\n
The efforts to attract tourists next year would be
\nconcentrated on countries with a lot of potential such as India,
\nChina and those in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Those countries have all recently been granted the visa-on-
\narrival (VOA) facility from Indonesia.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/foreign-tourist-numbers-drop-6-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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