RI TIDYING UP DESTINATIONS FOR MORE WORLD CRUISES

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 2 (ANTARA) - With over 17,500 islands and water areas of 70 percent, Indonesia -- which owns the world's longest stretch of beaches reaching 81,000 km -- is building at least 66 maritime ecotourism destinations to attract tourists on board cruise ships.          The development of the world cruise destinations is part of the country's efforts to advance its maritime tourism and boost foreign tourist arrivals which have been showing an upward trend of late.          "Now is the time for us to become a world cruise tourism destination because we have a big potential in this sector," Director General for Marketing Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Sapta Nirwandar said.          The Indonesian government, during the celebration of New Year's Eve last December, officially announced its optimistic target of attracting 7.7 million foreign tourists into the country in 2011, up about 10 percent from 7,000,571 arrivals in 2010.          In order to help the country achieve its tourism targets, the government is developing various tourism-related sectors, including its maritime ecotourism. As regards, Indonesia affirms its readiness to become a world cruise destination as part of the development of its maritime tourism.          The director general said his office was working hard to develop the potential while declaring that Indonesia was ready to serve cruise ships from various countries.          "We hope that in a not-too-distant time at least two cruise ships will visit the country every day. Besides making calls at Padang Bai, Benoa (Bali),  Jakarta, Lembar (Lombok-West Nusa Tenggara-NTB), Makassar (South Sulawesi), Komodo (East Nusa Tenggara-NTT)  and Semarang (Central Java), the world cruise ships are also expected to call at other 66 destinations  such as the Tanjung Puting (Central Kalimantan) which has of late attracted many world cruises," Sapta Nirwandar said.          Sapta said his office has seriously developed cruise tourism in Indonesia in the last eight years together with other maritime tourism stakeholders.          "This endeavor has begun to show results. Now, the number of world cruises' calls has increased to 90 a year, from only 20 calls in 2002," the director general said. After all, the number of destinations visited by cruise ships has also increased from only three in the past several years to 66 destinations now.          Therefore, the marketing directorate general will continue its efforts to develop the country's cruise tourism and to improve the image and competitiveness of Indonesia as a world cruise destination.          For this purpose, the directorate general will use the Indonesian tourist resort island of Bali as a turn-around port while preparing others so that Indonesia would be able to serve large-scale cruises with big number of passengers.          It will also increase the quality of its services, synchronize and harmonize regulations, including polices in facilitating the visits of world cruise ships.          Sapta said that priority would be given to the Benoa port of Bali to be developed as an international standard turn-around port which could accommodate world cruise ships and serve as a starting point for the development of maritime tourism into the eastern regions of Indonesia.          So far, Bali has been the major foreign tourist destination province and is expected to serve as a catalyst for Indonesia's tourism.          During 11 months of the January - November 2010 period, the tourist resort islands was visited by 2,345,885 foreign tourists, or an increase of 8.48 percent compared with those arriving in the corresponding period in 2009 which stood at 2,162,576 visitors.          "The arrivals in 2010 exceeded the target set by the Bali regional government at between 2.2 million and 2.3 million arrivals," Bali's statistics chief officer Gede Suarsa said.          In order to help develop Indonesia's maritime ecotourism, particularly in island areas, the government is also active in promoting the potentials and cooperating with other countries.          For example, Indonesia has offered cooperation in this field to Maldives. Minister for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) Fadel Muhammad said the island country which is located in the Indian Ocean was asked to cooperate with Indonesia because it had developed advanced island maritime tourism.          Maldives is visited by about one million foreign tourists a year. If the pattern of Maldives' maritime tourism could be emulated, it is expected that Indonesian islands which account for thousands of islands would attract and multiply foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia.         "About one million foreign tourists visit Maldives every year. Ahead, we will emulate them," the minister said explaining his visit to Maldives last week.          He said Maldives was able to optimize the development of its isles into maritime tourism sites as sources of income for its people.          Maldives leased its islands to investors who developed them into tourist resorts with an investment value of each island reaching US$150 million and 200 million.          The rate of hotel rooms there is between 600 and 1,000 per day. This drastically drives fishermen's income up from about 600-800 to about 10,000 dollars.          "Therefore, we will invite investors both domestic and abroad, to cultivate small islands as tourism sites," the minister said.          In the meantime, Director General for Small Islands and Coastal Areas Sudirman Saad said his side had signed a cooperation agreement with the Maldives' tourism minister for the development of maritime tourism.          He said Indonesia had clusters of islands which had the potentials to be developed into maritime tourism resorts, such as the Anambas islands in Riau province, Rajaampat in Papua and Wakatobi in Central Sulawesi.          "The islands which are good for development are those near Singapore because Indonesia can take advantage of infrastructure in that country," Sudiman Saad said.      (T.A014/A/HAJM/16:05/A014) 02-02-2011 16:23: