Tourism board wants $30m budget to promote tourism

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Culture and Tourism Board (ICTB) has asked the Ministry of Finance for a US$30 million budget to finance the promotion of the country's tourist attractions overseas, an official said.

ICTB chairman Setyanto P. Santosa said on Tuesday that the campaign was aimed at ensuring foreign tourists that the country was a safe destination for holidays.

"We plan to use the additional budget to place advertisements on major international TV stations such as CNN, CNBC, BBC and other regional TV stations in Japan, Germany, France, China and Malaysia," Setyanto told legislators during a session with the House of Representatives Commission VI for culture, education and tourism.

He said that the target for foreign tourist arrivals next year was about 6 million, which is up from this year's estimate of 5.4 million. By 2005, that figure is projected to jump to more than 8 million.

ICBT is a unit under the offices of the State Ministry of Tourism and Culture whose main job is to promote the country's tourism.

Setyanto said that the world economic slowdown and the poor image of the country had affected local tourism.

"To increase the number of foreign visitors, we need to make a major push in promoting the country's image and various attractions to the world," he said.

Setyanto said that the budget for the development of the country's tourism was still limited compared to other countries in Southeast Asia.

"This year the government only allocated some $3 million for its promotional budget. This is very small compared to Malaysia with $150 million, and Singapore with $60 million," he said.

Tourism has been a major foreign exchange earner for the country. But Indonesia has been lagging behind its neighboring countries in luring foreign tourists. The economic and political crises which hit the country in late 1998 had only worsened the situation. Foreign media reports of Indonesia being a hiding place for international terrorist groups and the emergence of anti-foreign sentiment following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks further hurt the country's image overseas and discouraged tourists from coming.

Last year, the country saw some 5.15 million foreign tourists visit the country, providing some $5.4 billion in foreign exchange revenue. This was lower than the initial target of 5.4 million foreign tourists.

According to data from the offices of the State Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in the first semester of this year, some 2.1 million foreign tourists visited the country.

State Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardika said he was optimistic that this year's target of foreign tourist arrivals would be achieved amid the improvement in the country's security.

"The security problem is no longer a concern now. We'll now be concentrating on promotional activities," he said, adding that developing ecotourism was one of the top priorities.

Meanwhile, legislator Heri Achmadi said that the House would approve the board's demand for the extra promotion budget, but insisted that a clear supervision system needed to first be installed to avoid corruption or misuse of the funds.

"We want all expenses to be accountable, since we still receive reports from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) of irregularities in the use of the state budget in both institutions," said Heri.

Setyanto said that part of the budget would also be used to renovate several tourist attractions, such as the National Museum, the Dieng and Borobudur temples in Central Java, and the Prambanan and Ratu Boko temples in Yogyakarta.