Indonesia gets serious about tourism
Indonesia has flagged moves to re-open its tourism offices around the world.
Bali Update online news reports that the directive has come from vice-president Jusef Kalla, the man who is calling for Indonesia to increase tourist arrivals by one million a year to seven million visitors by 2008.
The vice-president has called for a revamped promotional budget to underpin moves to drive more tourists to Bali and beyond.
Travel operators, especially in key markets like the UK and Australia, have been frustrated by what they view as Indonesia’s poor overseas marketing efforts in recent years.
Visa issues and the lack of European flights by Garuda Indonesia have compounded this frustration.
However, Tatang Rukhiyat, director for international relations at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said earlier this month that Garuda would resume flights to Amsterdam this year, with Frankfurt and London to follow.
Garuda is also committing US$54 million to refurbish its wide body fleet in a bid to make the airline more attractive to long haul fliers.
There are also hopes that Bali-based Air Paradise International, which suspended services to Australia in November 2005, may be on the verge of announcing a re-capitalisation agreement that would allow it to re-commerce Australia-Bali-Jakarta services.
Air Paradise managing director Kadek Wirantha has been in protracted discussions with a Sri Lankan travel business and hopes to resolve outstanding issues to enable the airline to resume services again once it has the necessary government approvals.
A Report by Ian Jarrett, TravelMole Editor Asia
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