"Indonesia has a positive aura in 2011 so that we set an optimistic target of 7.7 million foreign tourist arrivals in the country,"Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik again promoted his idea to boost inter-ASAN tourist arrivals during the ASEAN Tourism Forum being held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, starting Monday (Jan 17).
He revealed his "ASEAN for ASEAN" idea for the first time in an ASEAN meeting in Vietnam in 2009, according to a press statement of the culture and tourism ministry here Tuesday.
During the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Cambodia, he would once again try to convince his fellow ASEAN ministers to encourage their peoples to visit ASEAN member countries, rather than to Europe, for instance.
"I personally has asked the Vietnam government to encourage its peole to visit Indonesia. On the other hand, we have also convince our people to visit Vietnam," Minister Jero Wacik was quoted as saying by Kompas.com.
Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN Pushpanathan Sundran said an integrated inter-ASEAN transportation infrastructures was needed to facilitate mobility of inter-ASEAN tourists.
"It should be discussed further," he said.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian government recently announced its target of attracting 7.7 million foreign tourists into the country in 2011, up about 10 percent from 7,000,571 arrivals in 2010.
"Indonesia has a positive aura in 2011 so that we set an optimistic target of 7.7 million foreign tourist arrivals in the country," Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said in his year-end press conference in Jakarta recently.
The number of foreign tourists arriving in Indonesia in 2010 was recorded at 7,000,571, or an increase by 8.5 percent compared with that in 2009 which stood at 6,452,259 arrivals.
"The figure of 7,000,571 exceeds the pessimistic target of 6.75 percent which was the performance contract with the President and the optimistic target of seven million," the minister said.
According to the minister, with the number of 7,00,571 foreign tourists arriving in 2010, Indonesia was able to collect a foreign exchange of US$7.6 billion.
(Tz.F001/HAJM/P003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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