Govt told to do more to attract Arab tourists

Govt told to do more to attract Arab tourists

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia needs to conform to the travel habits of those from the
Middle Eastern and to extend its visa-on-arrival policy to other
countries in the area to attract more tourists, says an airline
top executive.

Airlines traveling from Qatar's capital of Doha to Jakarta
were filled with tourists from Europe instead of those from the
Arab countries, said Qatar Airways area manager for Indonesia and
Australasia Aminuddin Ab Hamid on Wednesday.

"Arabs don't want to go through the hassle of getting a visa
(before traveling)," he said on the sidelines of the launch of a
direct service by the airline from Doha to Jakarta.

"If the (Indonesian) government were to extend the visa-on-
arrival facility to all Middle Eastern countries, I'm sure they
(tourists) would love to come here," he added.

The government has applied a visa-on-arrival policy for 22
selected countries since February last year. The United Arab
Emirates is the only Middle Eastern country on the list.

The government has said that it was considering including more
countries in the program, but has yet to announce which ones.

Despite the low level of interest from Arabs, Qatar Airways
has decided to provide direct flights from Doha to Jakarta to
accommodate the demand from Indonesia for an alternative route
for travelers going to Europe or embarking on pilgrimages to
Saudi Arabia.

Starting March 19, the carrier will operate two direct flights
weekly while maintaining five other flights per week via Kuala
Lumpur. Without the transit, passengers can save about three
hours of traveling time, with the length of the journey being
reduced from 11 hours to eight hours.

"By September of this year, all weekly flights will be
direct," Aminuddin further said.

To fill the new flights from the Middle East to Jakarta with
tourists, the government and travel agents needed to come up with
attractive packages that conformed with Arab habits, he said.

For example, as Arabs were not keen on restrictions on when
they could eat their first meal of the day, hotels in Malaysia
allowed breakfast vouchers to be traded in for lunch vouchers, he
added.

Malaysia is one of the main destinations for tourists from the
Middle East, who usually come in large groups with lots of money
to spend.

With about 95 flights per week between Kuala Lumpur and
Jakarta, there would appear to be major opportunities for
Indonesia to entice them to visit the country after spending a
few days in Malaysia.

The Middle East is one of Indonesia's main targets for
attracting new tourists this year, aside from India and China.

The Office of the State Minister for Culture and Tourism has
set a target of six million visits by overseas tourists in 2005,
up from about 5.3 million last year.

The government is currently considering increasing visa
validity from three days to seven days and from 30 days to 60
days, depending on the type of visa, and of reducing the cost
from $35 to $25.