Govt told to reopen tourist offices abroad
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
The government should reopen its tourism offices abroad to give a boost to the recovery of the tourism industry following the tsunami last year, World Tourism Organization (WTO) officials said on Saturday.
The organization's visiting officials found that the tsunami has caused a significant drop in tourist arrivals.
"Last year Indonesia enjoyed an increase of 21.2 percent in the tourism sector. However, during the period from January to July this year, it experienced a decline of 4.1 percent," WTO's Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific Christine Brew said in a meeting with Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Director General of Marketing Thamrin B. Bachri and Yogyakarta Provincial Secretary Bambang S. Priyohadi.
Brew and four other delegates of the WTO's Tsunami Task Force were in Yogyakarta for a familiarization tour in the country to assess the affect of tsunami on the tourism industry in the region.
The trip was taken as part of the implementation of action plans made during the WTO Special Meeting of the Executive Council and the 1st Meeting of the WTO Tsunami Task Force in Phuket, Thailand, February this year.
The group is also scheduled to visit Surabaya and Malang in East Java as well as Bali, and Lombok that were not affected by the tsunami to enable them to tell the international market that it was only Aceh, which was far away from Bali and other prominent tourist destinations, that was devastated by the tsunami.
"Most tourists are not aware of this. They think the tsunami has devastated the whole of Indonesia. Why? It's because they do not get enough information about Indonesia," Brew said.
In Yogyakarta, they met with local officials and representatives of the private sector to gather information about tourism as well as visited the Royal Tourism Indonesia Mart and Expo at Jogja Expo Center, which ends on Sept. 26, where 126 sellers of tourism-related services from 20 provinces meet with 84 buyers from 23 participating countries.
She said that by reopening tourism offices in key countries or cities in its main source markets, necessary information could be channeled through them.
"These offices can become the mouthpiece of Indonesia in the field of tourism, to carry out the promotional task for Indonesia. Without the presence of such offices, Indonesia is voiceless abroad," said Brew, suggesting that Garuda resume flights to Europe to make the trip to Indonesia easier.