Tourism down in E. Kalimantan

SAMARINDA, East Kalimantan: The number of tourists visiting East Kalimantan province in the first quarter of the year dropped by 40 percent compared to the same period last year.

Head of the provincial tourist office, Ghalib Aziz, said here Sunday that the decline was caused by the monetary crisis coupled with political instability in Indonesia.

According to Ghalib, only 200,000 tourists came to East Kalimantan from January to March this year, compared to 290,000 in the same period in 1997.

"At least 500 foreign tourists have canceled their trips to the province after hearing that Indonesia was not safe following the rioting that occurred in the country," he said.

"Our office predicts that there will only be 807,390 foreign tourists visiting East Kalimantan this year," he said, pointing out that 1,345,650 foreign tourists came to the province last year.

Ghalib said that in a bid to attract tourists, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia had reduced airfares from US$1,000 to $500 for return flights from East Kalimantan to the Netherlands.

"But the effort has yet to attract Dutch tourists, who made up the biggest group of tourists last year," he said.

According to Antara, East Kalimantan is expected to earn only Rp 66.29 billion from tourism this year, compared to the Rp 109.8 billion the province earned last year.