Govt cuts 2002 tourist arrivals target

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has revised downward the 2002 foreign visitors target to 5.3 million from an earlier projection of 5.8 million due to the global economic slowdown, according to a senior official.

"This (new) number is quite reasonable for next year; we're optimistic we can reach it," secretary-general of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Setyanto P. Santosa said at a seminar on the impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. on the local economy.

The Sept. 11 attacks have only deepened the global economic slowdown.

Setyanto said that the target of 5.3 million foreign tourists could still be achieved, as many people from Asian countries would change their travel destinations to "safer" countries in the region, including Indonesia.

He said that increasing numbers of people from Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, China and Australia had changed their travel destinations.

He said that the government would boost promotional activities in those countries, and reduce promotion in Europe and the U.S.

"We plan to boost promotion within the Asian region," Setyanto said.

"It now depends on the security situation. I hope that people don't take action, which would only damage the country's image," he said.

He pointed out, as an example, that the threats made recently by certain local hard-line groups to expel Americans and Britons from the country as a protest against the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan had scared away foreign visitors and was detrimental to the tourism industry.

Reports earlier said that some 1.3 million foreign tourists had canceled their visits to the country due to security concerns following the incident.

The government previously revised the 2001 foreign tourist arrivals target from 5.4 million to 5.1 million.

As of September, the tourist arrivals had reached 3.5 million.

Last year, tourist arrivals in the country totaled about 5.1 million, coming mainly from ASEAN countries (2.05 million visitors) and other Asian countries (1.9 million).