RI TO FURTHER TAP ASEAN TOURISM MARKET

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Aug 9 (ANTARA) - The ASEAN region is  still the major contributor to the flow of foreign tourists into Indonesia being the fact that of the 7 million foreign tourists who visited  Indonesia last year,  about 2.5 million came from Southeast Asian countries.          Seeing the number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2010 which stood at 7 million, Indonesia early this year set an optimistic target of attracting 7.7 million foreign tourists in 2011, up about 10 percent from 7,000,571 arrivals a year earlier.          However, in the first semester of this year, the number of foreign tourists who  arrived was recorded at 3.5 million only or less than half of this year target of 7.7 million.          "If the figure of arrivals in the first semester is taken into account it seems that the target of 7.7 million is rather high because if the 3.6 million is multiplied by two, the maximum figure of arrivals would only reach 7.2 million," Chief of the Central Board of Statistics (BPS) Rusman Heriawan said.          Therefore, Indonesia is intensifying its tourism promotion activities in an effort to achieve the target it has set at 7.7 million for this year.  Besides in other countries, the government is looking to the ASEAN region. And in this case, Indonesia has begun to tap the Philippine tourism market.          "We have begun tapping the Philippine tourism market this year. We will conduct a number of tourism promotion activities in the Philippines next September," Deputy Director for ASEAN region of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Chrismiastutie, said here on Tuesday.          Chris said that in September, her side will conduct a stringed musical concert and tourism promotion in the Philippine capital Manila. In November Indonesia would conduct a road show and sales mission in two Philippine most potential cities of Manila and Cebu.          "The market potential in the Philippine is pretty good and still could be developed," she said.          The number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia up to June 2001 was recorded at 3.6 million, up 6.42 percent from that in the same period a year earlier at 3.38 million.          "The cumulative number of foreign tourist arrivals in the January - June 2011 period is recorded at 3,597,632 people which is 6.42 percent higher than that in the corresponding period in 2010," BPS  Chief Rusman Heriawan said.          He said that with that figure it was still difficult for Indonesia to achieve its target this year which was set at 7.7 million arrivals.          Early this year, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik announced the country's 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.          The foreign tourist arrival target was raised by about 10 percent because the world now had a good perception of Indonesia that could attract more visitors.  "Indonesia has a positive aura in 2011 so that we set an optimistic target of 7.7 million foreign tourist arrivals in the country,"  Minister Jero Wacik then said in a year-end press conference.          The minister raised the target for 2011 because his ministry's target to attract seven million foreign tourist arrivals in 2010 was achieved.  The number of foreign tourists arriving in Indonesia in 2010 was recorded at 7,000,571, or an increase by 8.5 percent compared with that in 2009 which stood at 6,452,259 arrivals.          In order not to miss this year's tourism target, the tourism ministry is focusing its attention to cultivate the ASEAN potentials, particularly that of the Philippine.  In 2010, the number of Philippine tourists arriving in Indonesia was recorded at 50,493, and in 2012 it is expected to increase to 62,247.          "Holding frequent events and sales missions is a main means of exploiting the market in the Philippines," Chrismiastutie said.          The number of Philippine tourists visiting Indonesia is still lower than that of Malaysia or Singapore yet Chris is convinced it will increase if various promotions are conducted in the Philippines.          This year, Chris hoped that about 3.2  million foreign tourists from ASEAN would come to Indonesia.          She said that so far the ASEAN countries have contributed the largest number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia, where in 2010 of the 7 million foreign tourist arrivals, 2.5 million came from ASEAN.          Indonesia mainly focuses on Singapore and Malaysia where in 2010 a total of 1.128 million and 1.034 million respectively came from these two countries. Therefore, Chris is adopting four marketing strategies namely taking part in tourism bourses, sales missions, holding Indonesian festivals and optimizing Visit Indonesia Tourism Office (VITO).          The number of foreign tourists' arrivals in June 2011 was 674.4 thousands, up 12.36 percent from 600.2 thousands in May.  "The figure increased by 9.94 percent compared with the number of those arriving in June 2010 amounting to 613.4 thousands.          This increase is more attributable to seasonal factors where June is the beginning of the peak season," Rusman said meanwhile.          Five main gates through which the foreign tourists entered Indonesia are Ngurah Rai airport (245,248 tourists), Soekarno Hatta airport of Jakarta (164,689), Tanjung Uban port of Bintan Island (32,372), Husein Sastranegara airport of Bandung, West Java (11,079) and  Tanjung Pinang port of Riau Islands (11,079).          The number of foreign tourists arriving through Ngurah Rai airport in June 2011 increased by 9.15 percent compared with those arriving in the same period a year earlier, namely 224.7 thousands in June 2010 and 245.2 thousands in June 2011.***5*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/23:20/H-YH) 09-08-2011 23:24:4