KL launches tourist drive in Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): Malaysia has launched tourism promotions, the first ever held, here and in Surabaya, East Java, to attract more tourists.

"Indonesia is one of our major tourist markets and we are looking for more tourists from the country in the coming years," deputy director general of the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board Khairuddin Md. Sari told reporters yesterday.

He said that he was in Indonesia with a delegation of some 40 hotel, travel and tourism representatives to promote his country's tourist industry in the two cities between July 30 and Aug. 5.

When asked about the promotion of tourism in Ligitan and Sipadan, two resort islands disputed by Indonesia and Malaysia, Khairuddin said: "We are aware that talks on the two islands, Ligitan and Sipadan, are still going on, so there's no promotion on the islands."

However, two booklets published by the board, which were distributed yesterday, promoted Sipadan as one destination in the Sabah tourist areas.

According to Khairuddin, in the last two years, Malaysia's five major tourist markets comprised Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia.

"The figure of our foreign tourist arrivals for 1994 was 7.2 million people, bringing some nine billion ringgit (US$4.2 billion) in foreign exchange revenues," he said.

Arrivals

"Of the total tourist arrivals last year, 225,854 were from Indonesia, spending some 218.9 million ringgit. The figure in 1994 was 20.8 percent higher than that in 1993. In the January- April period of this year, the number of Indonesian tourists visiting Malaysia reached 65,777, 19.6 percent higher than that in the corresponding period of last year."

He said that Malaysia, which expects some 7.9 million foreign tourist arrivals this year, emphasizes three destinations in attracting Indonesian tourists, including Pangkor, Malacca and Taman Negara.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Dato' Dali Mahmud Hashim said yesterday that Malaysia and Indonesia have improved cooperation in the tourism industry.

"In 1993, there were only 61 flights per week from Indonesia to Malaysia and the frequency increased to 66 in 1994 with a total capacity of 9,027 seats," he said.

The two countries are also involved in the development of sub- regional cooperation in three growth areas -- the Singapore-Johor-Riau, Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand and Brunei- Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines areas of growth, he said.

"All of these growth areas will definitely contribute to both our economic and social development. One of the important aspects that the countries are seriously considering is the travel liberalization to improve on intra-ASEAN travels."

This is the commitment to be taken by the respective countries to ensure better economic growth, which will later create a bigger opportunity in the tourism industry, he said. (icn)