RI CONVINCED IT WILL REACH TOURISM TARGET OF 8 MILLION

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Dec 15 (ANTARA) - Being confident that it will reach its target of 8 million foreign tourists by the end of 2012,  the Indonesian government is poised to raise its 2013 tourism target to 9 million and to 10 million by 2014.          According to officials, 6.5 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia during the first ten months of 2012, a 5 percent increase compared with arrivals in the same period in 2011, which stood at 6.2 million.         Optimism in the tourism sector is based on the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the January to October 2012 period, which reached 6.5 million. Though arrivals in November and December have yet to be calculated, December is usually a time when tourist arrivals peak.          "We have set a target of 8 million foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia by the end of this year," the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry's inspector general, I Gusti Putu, said.            However, cooperation among various parties, such as travel agents and hotels, is necessary to reach the goal, so the tourism industry must function properly, Putu added.          He pointed out that tourism and a creative economy were closely related, as the creative economy can develop properly only with a thriving tourism industry. He added that a number of ministries, particularly the Trade Ministry, played an important role in the development of the creative industry.          So far, however, foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia have been increasing annually by about one million tourists. This year, the target of 8 million is most likely to be reached.          "The accumulative number of foreign tourist arrivals from January to October 2012 is recorded at 6,583,629, or an increase of 5 percent compared with arrivals in the same period in 2011, which totaled 6,270,244 ," Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said last week.          She added that the increase in foreign tourist arrivals was boosted by the country's tourism programs, among others, offered in the form of "Meeting, Incentives, Convention and Event (MICE)" packages.          Further, the number recorded up to October this year would add to the optimism that the target of 8 million visitors in 2012 would be met, Mari said.  The record also showed that the marketing strategy adopted in the past several months has been effective, she said.          She said tourism marketing has been focused on Indonesian year-end festival programs for six countries - Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China, Japan  and South Korea.  The result has seen an increase in the number of visitors from those countries, except South Korea, she said.          In fact, the number of visitors from South Korea was negative in October, she added.          However, the number of visitors from Singapore, Japan, and China rose significantly, by 10.2 percent, 15.48 percent and 45.98 percent, respectively.      An increase has also been recorded in the number of visitors from the United Arab Emirates, up 82.68 percent, Bahrain at 59.09 percent, Saudi Arabia at 50.98 percent, and Russia with 44.4.          The minister also said the MICE tourism program played an important role in driving up the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia.          "This can be seen from the increase of foreign tourist visits that arrived through the main gates of Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta and Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, Riu Islands in October. I think this is contributed to by activities related to the MICE programs," Mari Elka Pangestu noted.          Further, the minister believes that Indonesia has the potential to become the main destination for tourists traveling under the MICE tourism program.          MICE tourism has the potential to increase the number of foreign tourist visits and increase the quality of the visit for tourists, because they generally stay longer and spend more.          "Indonesia will host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and a number of international events, such as the Miss World contest next year. This will have the potential to attract foreign tourists in big numbers and promote Indonesia," said the minister.          She added that her ministry had decided to promote the MICE program as one of the country's 7 Special Interest Tourism programs, which will become the focus of development by the government.          "We have even set up two promotion directorates, called 'The Incentive Event and Special Interest Convention Promotion Directorate', under the Tourism Marketing Directorate General, and 'Event, Incentive, Convention and Special Interest Tourism Development Directorate' under the Directorate General of Tourism Destination Development," she said.          The minister said that this would have a significant impact on and contribute to reaching the target of next year's foreign tourist visits at 9 million arrivals.          "We aimed to reach nine million foreign tourist visits next year," Deputy Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy, Sapta Nirwandar, said.          Sapta added that the nine million visitor target was expected to become a stepping stone to reach 10 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2014.  Next year, he said, Indonesia will eye more arrivals and attract visitors from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China, Japan and South Korea.          "Next year, we have set 16 countries to become our target market. In these countries, we will organize various priority tourism activities to attract visitors to Indonesia," Sapta explained. With these programs, Indonesia will seek to attract 1.75 million tourists from Singapore, 1.4 million from Malaysia, 1.220 million from Australia, one million from China, 505 thousand from Japan, and 360 thousand from South Korea.          The other countries which Indonesia is targeting include the Philippines, Taiwan, the United States, Britain, France, India, the Netherlands, the Middle East, Germany and Russia.          To achieve this, Sapta said all tourism stakeholders in the country must work together in a common effort.          Indonesia has successfully attracted increasing foreign tourist arrivals over the past three years.  In 2011, it set itself the target of attracting 7 million foreign visitors and was successful.          This year, it is eyeing another 8 million, which is expected to be achieved during the peak season in December. For 2013, the government has set a target of 9 million, and is planning to increase it to 10 million tourists in 2014.***2*** (T.A014/INE/a014) (T.A014/A/KR-BSR/A/A014) 15-12-2012 17:52