Study divides RI into six tourist regions
Study divides RI into six tourist regions
JAKARTA (JP): An expert team has prepared a proposal to divide
Indonesia into six regions as an effort to endorse the
development of the country's tourist industry.
The team groups experts from University of Indonesia in
Jakarta, University of Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, and the Bandung
Institute of Technology in West Java. The jobs of the team
include data compilation and strategy formulation for the
development of tourism in the next 15 to 20 years.
In a recent discussion, team member Sri Mulyani Indrawati said
that the team had proposed the setting up of six major tourist
areas in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Irian
Jaya.
She said that each of the areas will have one or two prime
gateways and a number of secondary gateways.
"The team has also proposed tourist destinations and selected
tourist products as well as target markets in each region," she
said.
She said that regional tourist division in Indonesia is
necessary because not all of the current tourist destinations in
the country are feasible from the point of view on gateways for
foreign visitors based on security, cost efficiency, supervision,
service effectivity, infrastructure and accommodation
availability and supporting attractions.
"We also consider that the tourist destinations are scattered
in Indonesia with different qualities, and most of them have
different attractions and accessibility," she said, adding that
the tourist regions will be divided based on the state's regional
development.
Based on the team's proposal, the Sumatra tourist area will
include Medan in North Sumatra and Batam in Riau as major
gateways, while Jakarta and Surabaya in East Java will be the
major gateways for the Java tourist area.
The Bali tourist area will have Denpasar as the major gateway,
and the Kalimantan area will have Balikpapan. The Sulawesi and
Irian Jaya areas will have Manado and Biak as respective
gateways.
According to Sri, among the aims of the establishment of the
six major tourist regions is to direct development activities in
the country.
Indonesia aims to depend on the tourist industry as its
biggest foreign exchange earner by the end of the Seventh Five-
Year Development Plan in 2004, while the role of the oil and gas
sector decreases.
Some 11 million tourists are expected to visit the country
annually by 2005, bringing in some US$15 billion in revenue, more
than double from about five million tourist arrivals expected
this year with revenues of some $6.7 billion. (icn)