Visit Indonesia Year 2008
February 13th, 2008
The Culture and Tourism Ministry has declared the new year Visit Indonesia Year (VIY) 2008, with a target of seven million foreign tourists expected to visit various places of interest all over the country.
This government effort certainly deserves our support, particularly because we have been behind Malaysia, which last year launched Visit Malaysia 2007 with the 50th anniversary of independence as its theme. Malaysia undertook large-scale investments and international promotions for this purpose.
When VIY 1991 was underway, Indonesia only managed to increase the number of tourists by 400,000 over the previous year’s record. VIY 2008 will hopefully score an even bigger rise in view of the major theme adopted at present: celebrating 100 years of national awakening.
In order to make the public confident of the success of VIY 2008, the ministry should explain the extent of its preparedness to face this event. In this way, the government, the tourism industry and society can cooperate in anticipating the worst factors of counter-promotion.
The first is the factor of natural disasters. Tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and bird flu have proven to discourage foreign visitors. The second factor covers information, transportation and various other facilities and infrastructure.
What about Indonesia’s VIY 2008 promotion investments? Malaysia spent about US$80 million on media ads and airport billboards in Asia last year. Let’s hope the government will reveal its preparations so that the goal of attracting a lot more foreign tourists will be achieved. Otherwise, it’s only anyone’s guess.
WAYAN SUDARMADJA
Jakarta
Source: The Jakarta Post
Entry Filed under: World Tourism News
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