(7/6/2009)
National tourism arrivals increased 1.69% during the first six months of 2009, totaling 2.41 million.
Bisnis.com quotes Indonesia's Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik, who points to the latest arrival statistics as proof that the world financial crisis is having minimum impact on the national tourism sector. Speaking in Bandung, West Java, Wacik said, "the graph showing this increase is gladdening because it happens in the middle of a crisis while visitors to several other tourism destinations have decreased."
Citing countries that have gained momentum during the January - May period, Minister Wacik counted off increases in arrivals from the following source markets: Australia (26.25%), China (18.96%) and Malaysia (16.81%). "If the current trend continues, I am optimistic that the 2009 target can be achieved, " Wacik added.
Indonesia is targeting 6.7 million foreign visitors for the entire year of 2009. Despite the Ministers stated optimism, a steady growth rate in arrivals of 1.69% would only result in 5.6 million arrivals in 2009.
The modest increase in tourism arrivals for Indonesia has taken place while, in the neighboring destination of Singapore, arrivals decreased 11.8% - a decrease of 401,957 – during the period January-April. Tourism arrivals have also declined by 19.69% to Thailand and 27.2% to Japan.
Related Article [Indonesia's National Tourism Targets Too Ambitious?]
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