Indonesia urged to launch major tourism campaign

Indonesia urged to launch major tourism campaign

JAKARTA (JP): Foreign tourism experts called on the Indonesian
government to launch a major tourism campaign overseas in a bid
to mend the country's tainted international image.

Pierre-Etienne Vaernewyck, the economic and commercial attache
of the Royal Belgian Embassy said on Thursday that Indonesia's
lack of adequate tourism promotion had resulted in misperceptions
about the country.

"Many people in Belgium thought Indonesia has only very modest
facilities to offer. They don't know that Indonesia in fact has
modern and luxurious facilities. Your country has to give more
and complete information on the facilities, too," he said.

The director of the Austrian National Tourist Office in
Jakarta, Oskar Andesner, said Indonesia was less known than Bali
due to incomprehensive information released to overseas markets,
including Austria.

"Indonesia was previously not well-known in Austria. Now we
know more about Indonesia, not as a tourism spot but because of
the headlines in the media," he said, referring to the vast
coverage by foreign media on the latest developments of political
situations in Indonesia.

Andesner said Indonesia had to improve its promotion and
public relations to encourage foreigners to visit the various
areas that the country has to offer.

"The most important thing here is perhaps for the government
to exercise an open sky policy to allow foreign airlines to fly
directly to tourist destinations other than Jakarta," he said.

Vaernewyck said many airlines from Western countries were
seeking an opportunity to fly directly to Bali.

"Direct flights to tourist destinations would make traveling
more convenient for foreign tourists and thus encourage more
people to visit the area," he told journalists on the sidelines
of a meeting on Indonesian tourism held by the Ministry of
Tourism and Culture.

Andesner confirmed Vaernewyck's statement, saying that the
number of Austrians who visited Thailand had jumped four times
after Austria's airline opened a direct flight route to Bangkok
and Phuket a couple years ago.

He said Austria was perhaps the only European country with
direct access to Bali at present. Its private airline, Lauda Air,
flies twice a week from Vienna.

Lauda Air was seeking permission to increase its flight
service to Bali due to a high passenger demand, he added.

In order to attract more tourists to Indonesia, the government
should improve its overseas promotion on destination areas other
than Jakarta and Bali, said Grels Zakrisson, the counsellor of
commercial affairs at the Embassy of Sweden.

"Apart from Bali, Indonesia is rather unknown. Promotion and
information are the most important. Your embassies around the
world should increase promotion to media in their respective
areas," he said. Vaernewyck also said that Indonesia should
inform the foreign public about recent positive developments in
the country's political condition to erase the foreign
misperceptions of Indonesia.

"You must tell (the foreign public) that Indonesia is safe
again... Tourists will certainly return to Indonesia," he said,
referring to the establishment of the new government under the
leadership of President Abdurrahman Wahid.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia dropped to
3.5 million in 1998 from 5.1 million in 1997 due to escalating
political instability.

In line with positive developments during the last couple
months, the government revised its forecast of total inbound
arrivals this year to about 5 million from an initial estimation
of between 3.9 million and 4.4 million.

Inbound arrivals in November are predicted to reach 354,500
tourists and 404,530 in December. (cst)