Surakarta to kick off aggresive tourism drive

SURAKARTA (JP): This Central Java town, also known as Solo, will launch a one-month tourist drive called the Solo Great Sales on Oct. 15 to anticipate a greater influx of tourists with the opening of Adisumarno airport as an international gateway.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave told reporters here yesterday that the event, called Obral Gedhe Solo in the Indonesian language, will involve all tourist businesses, such as restaurants, shops, tour operators, handicraft producers and hotels.

"Visitors usually do a lot of shopping in Surakarta, which is well-known for its batik, foods and traditional handicrafts," he told reporters at the Mangkunegaran Palace.

He said that Surakarta, which is criss-crossed by four rivers, is also well known for the entrepreneurship of its people.

"That's why we have selected Surakarta to hold this event, and not Jakarta. The Obral Gedhe Solo will be held annually if the first event is successful," he said.

He said that the state-run University of Sebelas Maret in Surakarta had been assigned to evaluate the event and its impacts.

"The parameters will include, among other things, how satisfied the participating traders are. Whether they have earned much money or not, and so on. Because the traders must be motivated to answer honestly, we won't collect any taxes."

The event will feature a wide range of activities, including cultural programs, industrial exhibitions, Javanese food festivals, a trade mart and seminars.

He said that some 70 shops in Surakarta had confirmed participation in the Rp 380 million (US$162,602) event.

During the event, restaurants will offer 10 percent discounts, star-rated hotels will offer up to 50 percent discounts and non- star-rated hotels will offer discounts of between 20 percent and 30 percent.

Joop Ave said yesterday that his office also has pioneered the refurbishment of the Mangkunegaran and the Kasunanan Palaces as cultural centers in Surakarta. "But don't ask me about the details. What I can tell you is that the project will commence later this year."

The Mangkunegaran Palace is a classical repository of Javanese art and culture which was built at the end of the 18th century.

"I have also asked the University of Sebelas Maret to recom mend to the staffs of the palaces ways to manage the heritage housed there and how to attract Indonesians to appreciate their own culture," he said.

Chief of the Surakarta Tourist Office, Soetrisno, told The Jakarta Post that last year Surakarta saw 37,000 foreign tourist arrivals, only a small portion of the 4.3 million overseas visitors to Indonesia in 1995. "The growth rate of foreign tourist arrivals in Surakarta has averaged 9.7 percent per year."

He said that length of stay of foreign tourists in Surakarta was just less than two days on average.

Surakarta, whose origins date back 251 years is located in the southeastern part of Central Java. The city currently has 14 star-rated hotels with some 925 rooms. There are also some 3,000 non-star-rated hotel rooms.

More tourists are expected to visit the city in the future because the Adisumarmo airport is currently being expanded to accommodate jumbo jets like the Boeing B-747-400.

Currently the Singapore-based SilkAir serves direct flights to Surakarta three times weekly.

Long before Indonesia's independence, the city was known as a place of enjoyment. Its reputation and its close vicinity to the Surakarta Hadiningrat Palace have attracted large numbers of out- of-town visitors, mainly because the palace's background is rooted in the history of Java's famed and influential kingdom, the Mataram kingdom.

Cultural products and art, the Pasar Klewer traditional market, the Jurug Park and the Sangiran archeological museum are some of the sites most attractive to foreign visitors. (icn)