Middle East tourists targeted

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.