Tourism agency holds road shows

JAKARTA: The city administration will continue to focus on attracting domestic tourists as they had greater potential than foreign tourists given present circumstances, said Aurora Tambunan, the head of the city's tourism agency, on Monday.

Therefore, the agency would hold road shows in several cities across the country, including Medan in North Sumatra, Batam, Denpasar in Bali, Balikpapan in East Kalimantan and Makassar in South Sulawesi, to promote Jakarta as a tourist destination.

Aurora said that the number of domestic tourists visiting Jakarta reached 9 million every year, while the number of foreign tourists only amounted to 1.3 million.

"We hope that through these road shows people from other cities across the country will be encouraged to visit the capital, which offers various kinds of tours, such as shopping tours, cultural tours and maritime tours, as well as conventions and a glimpse of the metropolitan lifestyle," she said.

Aurora said that the capital's tourism industry had been severely hit by bombings in the recent past, including the early August Marriott blast. However, she said that the industry had been gradually recovering. --Antara