Speaking to the press after inaugurating Dafam Hotel in Semarang Friday night, he said that while the number of Japanese tourists originally expected to come to Indonesia this year to reach 400,000, it will decrease by 10-20 pct following the devastating earthquake and subsequent strong tsunami.
In view of the drop in the number of Japanese tourists to Indonesia, Jero Wacik said he will try to increase the number of tourists from China, Korea, India, Australia and Europe to Indonesia to offset the reduced number of Japanese tourists to Indonesia/
The minister in the company of President Commissioner of the Dafam Group Soleh Dahlan and the Semarang hotel`s president manager Andhy Irawan said that in general the number of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia had increased by 10 pct each year.
"In 2010 some 7.3 million foreign tourists came to Indonesia producing Rp76 trillion in foreign exchange which was a national record," he said.
He said that this year the number of foreign tourists to Indonesia had been projected to reach 7.7 million with a forex revenue of Rp80 trillion.
President Commissioner of Dafam Grup Soleh Dahlan said he has predicted that tourism in Indonesia, especially in Central Java, will be booming along with the economic growth in the country.
He also said that he will continue building and developing hotels in a number of cities with a high potential in the tourism and business sectors. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
