Govt told to reopen tourist offices abroad
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.