Meeting starts to discuss future tourism
Meeting starts to discuss future tourism
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said yesterday that the government will begin discussing the future of the country's tourist industry tomorrow.
"A small forum of economists will meet to begin arranging academic outlines of the action plans for the development of the country's tourist industry within the next 10 years," Joop said in a hearing with Commission V of the House of Representative yesterday.
He announced the establishment of the forum last month, saying that the forum will analyze the structure of the country's tourism-related infrastructure before moving faster in facing the year 2005.
Joop told the commission, which deals with tourism, transportation and telecommunication industries, yesterday that such a measure is necessary because the tourism industry is targeted to become the country's biggest foreign exchange earner by the 2000s.
He said that the forum will not create any policy because it is just a kind of "think tank" of several economists to discuss the aspects of the country's tourist industry.
"Academic outlines are needed for basic actions. Then, I will start discussions about three main subjects -- defense and security, health and infrastructure.
"Discussions will be firstly held with my counterparts of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Home Affairs about an idea of establishing tourist police. As we target to attract about more than 10 million foreign visitors by the end of the Repelita VII period, we have to be sure there will not be any trouble," he said, adding that the other discussions will be on health and infrastructure issues.
The seventh Five Year Development Plan (Repelita VII) period will end in March 2004.
Health
"We have to be assured about health, to eliminate the possibility of the spread of diseases. We also need better infrastructure," he said.
The country's biggest foreign exchange earners currently include oil and gas, textile products and timber.
"The country gained US$12.8 billion from oil and gas exports last year, while tourist arrivals gave Indonesia only $4.7 billion in revenues," Joop said, adding that the number of tourist arrivals has to increase by about 300 percent if Indonesia wants to gain US$12 billion per annum from tourism by the end of the Repelita VII period.
He said that the forum will also learn whether the expectation is practical. "But I want to reiterate that the number of tourist arrivals has in fact increased dramatically from 1983 to 1993, with a growth rate of about 400 percent in the number of visitors and more than 800 percent in revenues," he said.
Realizing that the price of oil, the country's largest foreign exchange earner, has steadily declined, while the markets for textile and timber don't have as much potential, the government has been promoting the tourist industry for the past several years.
In 1993, the tourist industry ranked fourth among the major foreign exchange earners, giving Indonesia $3.35 billion in revenues from foreign tourists, as compared to the $6.87 billion gained from oil and gas exports, $6.06 billion from textile exports and $5.47 billion from timber exports. Last year, more than four million foreign tourists visited Indonesia, spending some $4.7 billion.(icn)