"This year, we set a target of attracting 3.2 million tourists from ASEAN to visit Indonesia," Chrismiastutie, the culture and tourism ministry`s deputy director for ASEAN region, said here on Wednesday.
ASEAN has always been the largest contributor to tourist arrivals in Indonesia.
In 2010, of the total 7 million foreign tourist arrives in Indonesia, around 2.5 million coming from ASEAN member countries.
She is optimistic that the number would increase to 3.2 million as the economic condition in 2011 is predicted to improve.
"Besides, the seat capacity has not been exposed optimally so far, so the potential to optimize it is still big," she said.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has estimated that the world tourism would grow 4-5 percent, and even 7-9 percent for Asia and the Pacific in particular.
"As long as there won`t be x factors (such as riots, natural disasters and terrorism acts) in Indonesia, we are optimistic that until end 2011 the number of tourist arrivals will be 7.7 million foreign tourists," she said.
Singapore contributed 1.128 million tourists and Malaysia 1.034 million tourists to Indonesia in 2010, she said.
The ministry would expand tourism markets to Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, she added.
In 2011, Indonesia hoped to attract 1.6 million Malaysian tourists, 1.430 million from Singapore and 210,000 from the Philippines, she said.
For that purposes, the ministry has applied four marketing strategies, namely participation in tourism bourses, sale mission, Indonesian festival sponsorships, and optimizing Visit Indonesia Tourism Office (VITO).
The ministry has planned to organize 75 promotional events overseas, and 17 of them will be in ASEAN, 18 in Asia, 15 events in the United States and the Pacific, 13 in Europe and 12 events in the Middle East.
Among tourist destinations for ASEAN tourists in Indonesia are Bali, Jakarta, Batam (Sumatra) and Bandung (West Java).
(T. H016HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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