Tourist officials meet in Surabaya

Tourist officials meet in Surabaya

JAKARTA (JP): Government officials and tourist industry
executives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
will meet in Surabaya, East Java, from Jan. 6 to Jan. 12 in an
annual forum to discuss cooperation in promotion and marketing.

The meeting, called the ASEAN Tourism Forum 1996, will feature
500 booths, half of which will be allocated to Indonesian
participants and the other half to foreign representatives.

The millions-of-dollars event, organized by PT Setia Mice in
cooperation with the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board, will be
66 percent financed by private firms and 34 percent by the
government.

Two other Indonesian cities, Jakarta and Bandung, West Java,
hosted the ASEAN Tourist Forum in 1986 and 1991 respectively.

Activities at the January forum will include a travel mart and
meetings of government officials and private sector executives
who represent the ASEAN Hotel and Restaurant Association, the
Federation of ASEAN Travel Agencies and scheduled airlines in the
region.

Managing director of the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board,
Wuryastuti Sunario, said yesterday that the domestic tourist
industry must still improve many aspects, including
professionalism, services and quality, to compete with other
ASEAN members.

In addition to Indonesia, the association also groups Brunei,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"In offering room rates, for instance, sometimes hotels in
Bali charge higher prices than their counterparts in Thailand,"
she said.

Indonesia targeted to attract some 4.5 million foreign
visitors this year, bringing US$6.09 billion in foreign exchange.
Some five million to 5.4 million tourists are expected to visit
the country next year, giving the country additional revenue of
US$6.91 billion.

In 1994, 4.01 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia,
compared to over seven million visiting Malaysia, over seven
million visiting Singapore and six million visiting Thailand.

Besides other ASEAN members, Indonesia's major competitors in
tourism include Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the new
markets of Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Sri Lanka and India.

Competitors' advantages in the area include contrasting
cultures, superior infrastructure, better access and wider
choices of resorts, Wuryastuti said.(icn)