Government urged to attract more Chinese tourists<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia should attempt to lure more tourists
\nfrom China in an effort to help revive the tourism industry which
\nhas been badly hit by the recent political upheavals and the
\neconomic crisis, according to a former tourism official.<\/p>\n
Andi Mappisameng, former director general of tourism, said
\nover the weekend that some six million tourists from China
\ntraveled overseas every year.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia should boost its efforts to increase tourist
\narrivals from China,\" he told the media at the weekend.<\/p>\n
He said that the procedure to obtain entry visas should be
\nmade more efficient and much cheaper.<\/p>\n
Various sources have said that to obtain an entry visa,
\ntourists from China are charged at the same as for several days'
\nvisit in Thailand.<\/p>\n
The appointment of tourist and travel agencies for the China
\nmarket should also be reviewed as they might be partly to blame
\nfor the high cost, Andi added.<\/p>\n
He explained that Indonesia should not be worried about the
\npossibility that the Chinese visitors would stay permanently in
\nthe country because they came from a very different background.<\/p>\n
\"Tourists from China come from the established middle class
\nwho really want to enjoy overseas vacations,\" he said, adding
\nthat Indonesia had fallen behind its Southeast Asian neighbors in
\ntapping into China's vast tourist potential.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that Singapore attracted an average of 350,000
\nChinese tourists each year, Malaysia 300,000, and Thailand
\n400,000, while Indonesia only managed to get 12,000 last year.<\/p>\n
Andi was optimistic the target to increase the Chinese tourist
\narrivals by more than 10 percent every year could be reached
\ndespite the recent May rioting which witnessed widespread looting
\nand burning of Chinese-Indonesian properties and the rape of
\nwomen from the ethnic group.<\/p>\n
\"We are making promotions in Singapore and Malaysia,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's tourist sector had been badly hit by the rioting
\nin the capital and other cities and the economic crisis that has
\nplagued the country and the whole of Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
Tourist arrivals during the first semester of 1998 were only
\n1.57 million compared to 2.02 million in the same period last
\nyear. The poor performance has left the market doubting whether
\nthe country will achieve the year-end target of 4.6 million
\narrivals spending US$5.75 billion.<\/p>\n
Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Marzuki Usman separately
\nsaid at the weekend that the tourism sector had started to regain
\nstrength as indicated from the high occupancy rate of hotels in
\nBali, Indonesia's favorite tourist destination.<\/p>\n
He expressed confidence that the tourism sector could
\nspearhead the recovery of the country's crisis-hit economy in the
\nshort term. (rei)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/government-urged-to-attract-more-chinese-tourists-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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