RI TOURISM BEGINS TO RISE AGAIN

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Aug 7 (ANTARA) - Indonesia's tourism sector as one of the country's main foreign exchange earners has experienced a set back in the past several years due to terror attacks on domestic foreign targets, yet the success of the government in cracking down on terrorists of late has led the tourism sector to revive.          The positive developments in the country's tourism are reflected in the foreign tourist arrivals in the first half of this year which have increased about 14 percent from that in the corresponding period a year earlier.          With the achievements in the first semester, the country's tourism officials are upbeat that Indonesia would be able to meet or even exceed its foreign tourist arrivals target of 7 million this year.          They are even planning to raise Indonesia's foreign tourist arrivals target to 7.6 million next year.  They made the plan after seeing that in the first half of 2010, a total of 3.38 million had visited Indonesia, while in fact it was a low season during this period.          "It is a very good figure because the January-July period is a low season, yet we are able to book a good number," I Gde Pitana Brahmananda, overseas tourism promotion director of the Ministry of Tourism, said.          He said that the arrivals of 3,380,544 foreign tourists in the country in the first half of this year was a good omen for the country's tourism development and made him convinced that the target of 7 million arrivals would be exceeded.          "During the low season we able to achieve a two digit growth so I am confident that we will experience a higher growth in the second semester," Pitana said.          The Central Board of Statistics (BPS) announced early this week that more than 3.38 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in the first half of 2010, up 14 percent from the same period last year.          In June 2010 alone, more than 613.4 thousand foreign tourists visited the country, an 11.41 percent increase compared to the same period last year, BPS Chief Rusman Heriawan said on Monday.          Compared to May, the number of tourist arrivals in June slightly rose 2.23 percent, he said. The number of tourists visiting Bali via Ngurah Rai Airport in June 2010 reached 224.7 thousand, an increase of 12.07 percent compared to June 2009 or 12.68 percent to May 2010, he said.          The rise in the number of tourist arrivals in June raised the average occupancy rates of star-rated hotels in 17 of the country's 33 provinces to 53.37 percent, up 0.73 point compared to June 2009 or 2.15 point to May 2010, he said.          On average the foreign tourists stayed at the star-rated hotels for 1.96 days in June 2010, down 0.04 day from June 2009, he said. The BPS also noted that the number of domestic air passengers in June reached 3.5 million, an increase of 0.43 percent from a month earlier.          Meanwhile, the number of foreign-bound air passengers in June  rose 14.06 percent to 867.3 thousand compared to the previous month. In the January-June 2010 period, the number of domestic and foreign-bound air passengers  increased 20.99 percent to 20 million and 25.96 percent to 4.5 million respectively compared to the same period last year.          With these developments, the Tourism and Culture Ministry has expressed its optimism that its target to net seven million foreign tourist arrivals in 2010 would be achieved.          "We are optimistic that the seven million target would be achieved considering the positive growth of foreign tourist arrivals in the first half of this year,"  I Gde Pitana Brahmananda said.           According to Marketing Secretary of the Tourism Directorate General Noviendi Makalam, the government will increase its foreign tourist arrivals target from 7 million this year to 7.6 in 2011.          "We have an optimistic scenario where we will raise our target for foreign tourist arrivals in 2011 to 7.6 million" Noviendi said.  But the tourism directorate general is also setting a moderate target of 7.3 million and a pessimistic target of 6.8 million.          The latest developments of the past 18 months have served as a basis for the government to raise its pessimistic target, Noviendi said adding that in the last 18 months, there had been an upward trend in the tourism growth, and in the first semester of 2010 it grew 14 percent.          Noviendi expressed hope that the positive growth in the tourist arrivals would continue to go on until the year end so that the 7 percent target would be achieved.       Up to now the directorate general is still focusing on 10 main markets, among others Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.          It has also begun to exploit secondary markets such as Germany and the Middle East and continue to look for new markets such as ex-Soviet Union's countries and Latin American ones like Brazil.          "We will exploit a number of countries such the United States as our main market, including Taiwan," Noviendi said.***2*** (T.A014/H-NG/f001  ) 07-08-2010 14:33: