Tourism bouncing back in country: Minister

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Padang, West Sumatra

A top government official said on Saturday that tourism in the country had returned to normal after being hit hard by a series of terrorist attacks, including the Bali and Marriott bombings in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gde Ardhika revealed that the number of tourists had increased since the first quarter of this year. During that period the number of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia stood at 1.3 million, or a 28 percent increase compared with the last quarter of 2003.

"It is estimated that the number of tourists will again increase by 35 percent in the second quarter of this year," said Ardhika, after opening an interisland swimming competition and paragliding competition at Carocok beach, Pesisir Selatan regency, West Sumatra province.

He regretted that three countries imposed travel warnings that suggested their citizens not visit Indonesia, which they considered to be a hotbed of terrorists.

The countries are the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

However, the travel warnings appear to have had no impact on tourist arrivals in Indonesia. In the first quarter of this year, the number of tourists from Australia surged by 80 percent compared with the previous quarter, from the U.S. by 40 percent and the United Kingdom by 30 percent.

The Bali-born minister, however, did not go into detail on the number of foreign tourists from the three countries.

Ardhika said at the event that the government would make West Sumatra province the gate for foreign tourists wishing to visit western Indonesia. The initiative was supported by central government support for the construction of Ketaping International Airport in West Sumatra province, so that it could facilitate the entry of tourists wishing to visit West Sumatra and other nearby provinces in Sumatra.

He also said that the government-sponsored interisland swimming competition and paragliding competition on July 10 and 11 was also part of the government effort to promote tourism in the province. The swimming competition was held at Carocok beach, participated in by 68 swimmers, 13 of whom were women.

The international paragliding competition was held separately at Langkisau Hill in the regency, participated in by domestic and international paragliders, including entrants from Hongkong, Singapore and Australia.