Indonesia plans to boost promotion in Middle East to attract more visitors
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The State Ministry of Tourism and Culture is planning to boost tourism to lure more visitors from Middle East countries as a growing number of people there shift their holiday destinations from western countries gripped by the fear of terrorism, a top official at the ministry said.
Chairman of the Indonesian Culture and Tourism Board (ICBT) Setyanto P. Santosa said the campaign would be jointly conducted with several travel agents, including the use of an international tourism expo and several road shows to Middle East countries.
"We have asked several travel agents, which provide pilgrimages to Mecca, to make a major promotional push to net tourists from Middle East countries," he told The Jakarta Post last week.
He was responding to an earlier report that Malaysia had been enjoying a significant jump in the number of Middle Eastern tourists, who have been annoyed by difficulties in obtaining travel documents to the U.S. and Europe, and have felt unwelcome in the West following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
AFP reported that the number of visitors from Arabic countries to Malaysia jumped by 115 percent last year to some 115,000, and that number was expected to soar to more than 200,000 this year.
Malaysia has been making a major promotional push in Middle East countries for quite some time.
Setyanto said that his office had not anticipated the shift in holiday destinations for Middle East tourists.
He said that during the first half of this year, about 50,000 tourists from the Middle East came to Indonesia, accounting for 1.9 percent of the total 2.7 million foreign visitors who arrived during that period.
Experts said that although Malaysia and Indonesia were countries with a large Muslim population, and could provide easy access to mosques and a Muslim diet for visitors from the Middle East, Indonesia was perceived by foreigners to be relatively unsafe compared to Malaysia.
Setyanto said that the campaign would also try to assure potential tourists from the Middle East that Indonesia was safe and its people were friendly to foreigners, including those from the Middle East.
"Another program that has been started is providing tourist brochures in Arabic," said Setyanto.
He said that travel agents should handle tourists from Middle East countries differently because they like to travel in groups with their families.
Setyanto said that many tourists from the Middle East like to go to the resort island of Bali and the mountains in West Java.
"Some also like to hunt," he added.
The government is targeting to draw some 5.4 million foreign visitors this year, which is an increase from last year's 5.1 million.
Total foreign exchange earnings expected to be garnered from tourism this year is about US$5.7 billion, compared to $5 billion last year.