More tourists to come despite election: Minister

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government appears convinced that more tourists will come here next year, playing down fears that the general election will scare them off.

Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardika said he was convinced that next year's general election would proceed smoothly and not discourage tourists from visiting Indonesia.

"Our people are now more experienced with democracy. So, we can reasonable expect the elections to be peaceful," he said.

The ministry has targeted 5 million tourist arrivals next year, 15 percent higher than this year's estimated figure of 4.4 million. It is hoped that the contribution of tourism to the country's foreign exchange earnings will be US$5 billion next year, 25 percent higher than this year's estimated contribution of $4 billion.

Initially, the government had targeted between 4.5 million and 4.8 million tourist arrivals this year, but it later revised the target down to 4.4 million due the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak and fears of terrorism in Indonesia.

In the first ten months of the year, tourist arrivals at 13 entry points across the country reached 3.02 million, a 15.4 percent decrease over the same period next year.

Most visitors were from Singapore, Malaysia and Japan.

Commenting on the impact of the government's plan to replace the visa-free facility with a visa-on-arrival scheme for a number of countries, Ardika said the plan was still up in the air as no decision had been made by the Cabinet on the implementation of the new visa policy.

The new visa policy was proposed by Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra several months ago, but the government has appeared reluctant to implement it due to strong protests from many parties.

Under Yusril's proposal, visitors from 48 countries, including Japan and Australia, the largest sources of tourists for Indonesia, would no longer enjoy visa-free facilities. Instead, they would have to apply for visas on arrival at their Indonesian port of entry.

Even if the government finally decided to implement the new visa policy, Ardika said he was optimistic that more tourists would come to the country next year, although he failed to explain how this would happen.

He only said: "We will have to work hard to reach the target."

Next year, the government would be eyeing additional visitors from Russia, the Middle East and China.

"We are now better able to understand the needs of tourists from these regions.

"In the past, for instance, we thought people from the Middle East enjoyed pilgrimage tours. In fact, they prefer visiting tea plantations," the minister said.

Ardika also said the government would also focus on cruises in its marketing campaigns, and would explore the potential of small islands across the country in attracting tourists.

"We shall prepare a number of cruises, such as the Wakatobi- Tomini-Togean-Pangkep island route in Sulawesi and the Weh-Nias island route in Sumatra," he said.

He also said that state ferry operator Pelni was now preparing to enter the cruise business to support the program.