Middle East tourists targeted

Rizky KD Ntoma, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city's tourist industry plans to continue its efforts to attract tourist from the Middle East.

"The recent bombing and terrorist threats will not affect our targeting of tourists from Middle Eastern countries," the chairwoman of the Jakarta chapter of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies, Herna P. Danuningrat, said on Thursday.

Herna, who was just reelected for a second term as chairwoman, said Middle Eastern tourists were not as concerned as Western tourists by the bombings.

"A lot of people from the Middle East are interested in visiting Indonesia. Unfortunately, we are still not doing enough by way of promotion," she said.

Herna suggested the City Tourism Agency promote Jakarta by offering shopping tours and distributing questionnaires to foreign tourists.

"The tourism agency should do more to promote tourism in Jakarta. It can do this by designing shopping tours and giving out questionnaires to the foreign tourists to find out what they like," she said.

There was an explosion at the People's Consultative Assembly in Central Jakarta on July 14, causing some physical damage.

Police linked the explosion to earlier blasts at the Soekarno- Hatta International Airport and a site near the United Nations office in April.

The police have speculated about the possible involvement of regional terror group Jamaah Islamiyah or the Free Aceh Movement in the bombings.

Despite the bombings, Middle Eastern tourists have continued to visit Jakarta's shopping malls and resort areas outside of the city, such as Puncak.