Govt will enforce measures to boost tourist industry<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government will soon enforce coordinated
\nmeasures to boost the tourist industry into becoming the
\ncountry's biggest foreign exchange earner by the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
\"The tourist industry has been growing very fast and President
\nSoeharto has targeted it as the country's main foreign exchange
\nearner by the end of the Seventh Five Year Development Plan
\n(Repelita VII) period,\" Minister of Tourism, Post and
\nTelecommunications Joop Ave said here on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
The Repelita VII period will start in 1999 and end in 2004.<\/p>\n
Joop said that the initial steps toward enforcing the measures
\nwill include the establishment of a special forum on tourism,
\nwhich is expected to help the government formulate policies and
\nguidelines on the development of the tourist industry.<\/p>\n
\"How will we manage if, by the end of the Repelita VII period
\nin 2004, we can attract the arrivals of more tourists bringing in
\nUS$5.84 billion in foreign exchange, a level currently gained
\nfrom oil and gas exports?\" he asked. \"We have to prepare
\neverything carefully to cope with the increasing number of
\ntourist arrivals.\"<\/p>\n
Joop explained that the forum is expected to formulate both
\nstrategies and action plans for the next 10 years.<\/p>\n
He said he had appointed Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, a
\nprominent economist, to organize a small-scale task force to set
\nguidelines for the planned forum, which will involve experts from
\nthe faculties of medicine and economics of the University of
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
\"I have had discussion with officials from the Central Bureau
\nof Statistics, the Directorate General of Immigration and the
\nresearch and development office of my ministry about the
\nestablishment of the forum, which is expected to prepare
\nblueprints of action plans,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that the forum, which also will involve private sector
\nexecutives, is expected to provide suggestions on tourist related
\nprojects to be supervised by other ministers in the cabinet.<\/p>\n
\"For instance, the forum should make suggestions to the
\nministers of public works, transportation, finance, agriculture
\nand justice if the tourist industry needs the development of
\nwater supply facilities, airports, customs and immigration
\noffices, as well as quarantine centers,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"We will study as well the methodologies applied by several
\ntourism organizations, including the Pacific Asia Travel
\nAssociation, the World Tourism Organization and the Economist
\nIntelligence Unit,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"The anatomy of the country's tourism will be reanalyzed
\nprecisely because we are going to move faster,\" he said, adding
\nthat the forum will discuss everything related to methodologies
\nand parameters aimed at the success of the tourist industry.<\/p>\n
The government, realizing that the prices of oil, the
\ncountry's major foreign exchange earner, have steadily declined,
\nwhile competition on the world market for non-oil products is
\nincreasing, has been promoting the tourist industry for the past
\nseveral years.<\/p>\n
President Soeharto, in his speech welcoming 1995, said that
\nIndonesia's tourism has been making major inroads and has now
\nbecome the fourth largest earner of foreign exchange.<\/p>\n
The President predicted that the tourist industry will be the
\ntop foreign exchange earner during the Repelita VII period.<\/p>\n
Data at the Central Bureau of Statistics show that in 1985,
\nthe tourist industry, with foreign exchange earnings of $525
\nmillion, ranked sixth behind oil and gas, timber, rubber,
\ntextiles and coffee.<\/p>\n
In 1993, the tourist industry ranked fourth. In that year,
\nIndonesia gained $6.87 billion from oil and gas exports, $6.06
\nbillion from textile exports, $5.47 billion from timber exports
\nand $3.35 billion from foreign tourists. (icn)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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