Exhibitions to be held to boost tourism

Leony Aurora and P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Office of the State Minister for Culture and Tourism plans to hold at least one national exhibition and several regional events to boost domestic tourism in 2004.

Marketing deputy director Udin Saefuddin, announced recently that a national exhibition would be held in Jakarta from May 20 to May 23.

At the event, which is expected to attract 100,000 visitors, information on tourist attractions in provinces across the country would be presented. Participants would include regional governments, handicraft entrepreneurs, and tourism and travel agencies.

The plan follows the government's decision in 2002 to shift national holidays to either Friday or Monday so as to allow for long weekends.

The government has allocated Rp 500 million (US$58,800) to cover the cost of the four-day national tourism expo, to be held at the Semanggi Expo Building in Central Jakarta.

The tourism and culture office has allocated Rp 11 billion ($1.3 million) to promote tourism across the archipelago, higher than last year's budget of Rp 5 billion. These funds exclude Rp 79 billion to be spent on Indonesia's participation in 42 international events throughout the year, said Saefuddin.

He admitted, however, that the country's tourism promotion budget remained far lower than the amounts spent by ASEAN neighbors Malaysia and Singapore, which allocated $100 million and $60 million respectively on tourism promotion.

An assistant to the deputy minister for domestic tourism promotion, Titin Soekarya, said regional exhibitions would also be held to inform the public about the diversity of tourism attractions here.

"In May, we will launch the Borneo Extravaganza," she said. This exhibition would focus on the tourism potential in Kalimantan and sell it to the Jakarta market, she added.

At the end of the year, a similar expo would be held in Sulawesi.

Since last year, the tourism office has also been conducting a program called "campus travel". Under this program, two students from each participating university visit tourism sites in a number of provinces.

These students are then expected to motivate their fellow students to travel, said Titin.

Some 60 students joined the tour to Jakarta and West Java as part of last year's program.

"This year, we will visit Yogyakarta and Jakarta," she said. Another 60 students would be invited on the trip planned to take place in mid year, she added.

Titin said a network of students from different universities in the country could also be developed and students could act as guides for visiting fellow students.

Further efforts to boost domestic tourism would be conducted through advertisements in the media, said Titin.

Her office would develop people's interest in traveling by making films on tourism areas to be shown on television and in schools.