The government is optimistic that foreign tourist arrivals will exceed expectations, even though arrivals as of October were so far only 80 percent of the proposed target.

Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry spokesman I Gusti Ngurah Putra said that the government was optimistic that the target could be reached because November and December were among the peak holiday months.

“From year to year, the trend of foreign tourist arrivals in November and December continues to increase. With stable political conditions and security, 7.7 million tourists will come to Indonesia by the end of the year,” Putra told The Jakarta Post.

He also said that the ASEAN Summit in Bali last month strengthened Indonesia’s global image, thereby persuading more people to choose Indonesia as their holiday destination at the end of 2011.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia between January through October 2011 rose 8.47 percent to 6.27 million people from 5.78 million during the same period last year, according to data issued by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) on Friday.

In October alone, the BPS recorded a total of 656,006 foreign tourist arrivals to the country, a 10.32 percent increase compared to 594,700 arrivals during the same month last year.

The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry expected 7.7 million visitors this year, up 10 percent above the 7 million that visited Indonesia in 2010.

Based on ministry data, tourist expenditures are expected to rise to US$8.47 billion by December 2011 up from $7.6 billion in 2010, he said.

In a separate interview, Sadar Pakarti Budi, the ministry’s marketing director said that the ministry is working hard to boost tourism by promoting Indonesia to the world through social media such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

“We are strengthening our marketing strategy by involving the people,” Sadar said.

In addition, he said that the ministry is expecting 9.5 million arrivals in 2014 with tourist expenditures reaching $10.93 billion. Based on 2010 World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) data, Indonesia’s tourism sector contributed 9.1 percent to gross domestic product (GDP) and employed 8.9 million people.

The WTTC data also showed Indonesia’s investment in the tourism sector rose 4.2 percent in 2010.

“With a good marketing strategy, the tourism sector will grow and bring wealth to the people,” he said.

The BPS data also showed that the occupancy rate of star hotels in 20 provinces in October 2011 was 54.87 percent, a 1.73 percentage point increase compared to 53.14 percent over the same period in 2010.

However, the average length of stay for foreigners in hotels during October was only 2.01 days, or 0.03 days lower than the same period last year.

The government is taking the tourism sector seriously by designating West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara and Bali in Corridor Five of the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Growth (MP3EI), a gateway for tourism requiring Rp 121.6 trillion (US$13.74 billion) in investment. (nfo)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/03/govt-hopes-foreign-arrivals-will-exceed-77m-year.html

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