Indonesia and World Tourism News

Soekarno-Hatta airport plans improved services, infrastructure

PT Angkasa Pura II, which manages Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, has committed itself to improving the airport’s facilities and services to support the Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program.

The state enterprise on May 22 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Culture and Tourism Ministry, which will organize training in service excellence for the frontline at Soekarno-Hatta.

“Angkasa Pura II has around 3,000 employees. We plan to conduct the training in stages. The following week we will train the 200 frontliners,” Culture and Tourism Ministry official Gozali told The Jakarta Post recently.

The ministry worked with Angkasa Pura II previously to provide training in service excellence for taxi drivers and travel agencies.

“In addition to training … we plan to build another 60 toilets,” said Trisno, adding that there were currently more than 100 toilets at Soekarno-Hatta Airport.

The available toilets were barely enough to meet passenger demands, Trisno said.

Each parking area will also be equipped with prayer rooms for Muslims.

“We are also building a new lane to improve access to the terminal. Those dropping off passengers can use lane one,” he said.

Those picking up arriving passengers would have to use lane two, while lane three is designed to accommodate shuttle buses which connect the airport with other terminals.

After training staff at Soekarno-Hatta, the staff in Bali would be given similar training, Gozali said.

“After we evaluate the results of the training at Sukarno-Hatta and Bali, we will continue to Batam, Medan and Padang,” he said. (lva)

Source: The Jakarta Post

Add comment June 2nd, 2008

Minister upbeat 2008 touriust arrival target to be achieved

Padang (ANTARA News) - Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik has expressed optimism the target of the Visit Indonesia Year (VIY ) 2008 program to attract seven million foreign tourists will be achieved.

He said he was optimistic as the number of tourist arrivals in the January-March period this year represented an increase of 15 percent from the figure on the same period last year.

Speaking at the opening of a “Sumatera International Travel Fair” (SITF) and congress of the South East Tour Guide Association (SEATGA) here Saturday, the minister noted the incease happened despite the floods that hit many regions, including Jakarta and its Soekarno-Hatta international airport, in January, shortly after the VIY 2008 program was launched. It also occurred at a time which in the past was usually a low season for tourism.

If the 15-percent increase also happened for every remaining month in 2008, the number of tourist arrivals for the whole year would be 6.5 million. “The balance of 400,000 tourist arrivals is expected to be covered by the many conventions that have already taken place, are still underway or will be held in Indonesia,” he said.

“Therefore, we all have to be optimistic the target of seven million tourist arrivals will be reached and we have not worked and hoped in vain,” he said. (*)

COPYRIGHT © 2008

Source: ANTARA News

Add comment June 2nd, 2008