Indonesia and World Tourism News

Govt declares 10 regions top tourist destinations

Sungailiat, Bangka (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government has declared ten regions in the country top tourist destionations in a move to boost the national tourism industry.

“The policy to declare ten regions top tourist destinations will hopefully encourage each of the regions to improve their performance in developing their respective tourism potentials,” Wibowo, a deputy drector general at the Culture and Tourism Ministry, said here at the weekend.

The ten regions are North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, West Sumatra, North Sumatra, Riau Islands, South Sumatra, East Kalimantan and West Irian Jaya, he said.

“Every year we make an evaluation of the regions to be declared top tourist destinations by taking into account various aspects, namely natural potentials, infrastructure facility and the local people`s way of thinking,” he said.

He said Indonesia had 33 tourist destination areas stretching from the country`s western-most province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam to the country`s eastern-most province of Papua.

“Of the total, only 16 tourist destinations are able to attract 90 percent of local and foreign tourists, including the ten top tourist destinations,” he said.

The 16 tourist destinations are Bandung, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Batam, Bali, Toba, Karakatau, Tana Toraja, Lombok, Semarang, Java, West Sumatra, Manado, Sangalaki, Komodo and Kupang, he said.

“The figure suggests that there is still a gap among tourist destinations. That`s why there need to be directives and policies to develop the tourist destinations in a concrete way,” he said.
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COPYRIGHT © 2008

Source: ANTARA News

Add comment October 20th, 2008

Malaysia Helping Indonesia Achieve 7 Mln Tourist Arrivals This Year

By Mohd Nasir Yusoff

YOGYAKARTA, Oct 18 (Bernama) — Malaysia, through the spirit of a friendly neighbour, is assisting Malaysia to achieve the targeted seven million tourist arrivals during Visit Indonesia Year 2008.

Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Datuk Zainal Abidin Mohamed Zain said this was proven with the projected arrival of 1.7 million Malaysian tourists in the republic, which has become a popular destination in Asean.

“We do not have the exact figure but it is about the same number of Indonesian tourists who visited Malaysia,” he told reporters at the launch of a Malaysian food and cultural fest here Friday.

He said direct flights to this district by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Air Asia, up to 10 times a week from Kuala Lumpur, had increased the foreign tourist arrivals by 200 per cent, as recorded by the Yogyakarta tourism office.

MAS started its direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Adisujipto Airport here on Jan 30 and Air Asia on Feb 1.

Zainal Abidin said the pressures of the current economic crisis did not prohibit the people from visiting places.

“The crisis is stressing people out. They need to relax to relieve themselves of the stress.

“No matter what the reason for the visit, the important thing is the co-operation between Malaysia and Indonesia to help each other in achieving the target of tourist arrivals to their respective countries, including the 22 million targeted by Malaysia this year,” he said.

The food and cultural festival is jointly organised by the Melia Purosani Hotel in collaboration with Melia Hotel Kuala Lumpur and is endorsed by Tourism Malaysia and the Yogyakarta Tourism Department.

It will be on until Oct 31.

– BERNAMA

Source: http://www.bernama.com.my/

Add comment October 20th, 2008